Diagnosis
by OnionDipshit
Summary: After the destruction of Starkiller Base, Nurse Minerva Caulder questions her loyalties to the Order just as she takes on a new patient, a defeated Kylo Ren. Disgusted with himself and everyone around him, the broken Jedi Killer can't help but relate when Minerva opens up to him about wanting to leave the regime behind. But will devastating radiation from Starkiller get in the way?
1. Day 1

**DAY ONE**

Everyone who could stand had gathered by the windows to watch the destruction first hand. A few boys rolled up to the side in wheelchairs or hobbled over on crutches, their friends picking them up and propping them against the wall or holding on to their shirt collars for a good view. The only ones who weren't pressing their faces to the glass were the ones left in bed; their arms and legs blown off from a weapons malfunction in the hangar bay a few days prior. If they were lucky enough to have woken up from the anesthetic by now, then their tired eyes were glued to the top portions of the massive window of the medical center, where Hosnian Prime had just shifted into view.

The young stormtroopers, all in their hospital gowns and regiment ordered sleeping clothes, cheered as a ghastly red light shot out across the star system. It illuminated the entire room in a blood colored glow, causing their wide eyes to shimmer as the phantom energy cut through the darkness of space like a knife. Suddenly, the beam of light separated into five threatening pieces, seeking out not only Hosnian Prime, but the rest of the system as well. The men's mouths hung open with a mixture of excitement and awe as the energy finally connected with its intended targets.

With each explosion came wild cheers from the crowd, and the boys turned to each other in congratulations as their ultimate goal was realized. The people that they had been taught to hate for their entire lives were finally dead; extinguished from the galaxy as if they had never existed at all.

"Aw man, I wish I'd been there with the General to see it!"

"We did it! They're dead!"

"Long live the First Order!"

A small nurse in the farthest corner of the room ran out into the hall. Searching for the bathroom, she found the door and stumbled in, covering her mouth until she was at the toilet. Unable to fathom what she had just witnessed, the young woman threw up, the unsettling amount of death churning her insides into a hot slime. After she had emptied her stomach, she sat down on the floor and laid her head against the stall, panting. Her short brown curls glued themselves to her forehead with sweat, her body shaking relentlessly as she recounted over and over again what she had just seen.

 _How many were there?_ She asked herself, her eyes blurring over with tears. _How many people died?_

A chill washed over her as the spirits exploded by, their haunting presence as obvious as their silenced screams. She shut her eyes and balled her fists around the hem of her white skirt, desperately trying to gather herself before Dr. Bahli found her. If he saw how distraught she was over the long awaited deaths of the enemy then she would be in a great deal of trouble- _again_. Day by day she was beginning to question whether or not she should take her father's advice and marry. At least then she could go home. She would be free from the suffocating _Finalizer_ and its deranged crew members, each one more radical than the next.

Sweat dripped down her neck, reminding her that she needed to get going. Slowly, she raised herself up off of the bathroom floor, balancing herself by leaning against the stall. Only slightly dizzy, the nurse grabbed the latch and unhinged it, her fingers slipping before they could open the door all the way. She pushed the door open with her shoulder and found herself alone, with only her pale reflection for company. Her dark eyes were wide from her nerves, and her bouncy brown curls were frizzy and damp. She stumbled to the sink and flipped on the cold water, splashing it on her face to try and snap herself out of this nightmarish state. The napkins crinkled as she yanked them out of the container to dry herself, the thin paper scratchy against her skin.

A knock on the door startled her. Straightening her uniform, she stuttered, "Y-yes? Just a minute!" She cringed as her nervous voice gave her away.

"Minerva, come out and see this! We got the sorry bastards!"

It was Dr. Bahli. His elitist accent was unmistakable, even through thick metal doors. Minerva looked at herself one last time in the mirror and let out a shaky breath before poking her head out of the bathroom. She looked up at the good doctor and blinked repeatedly, holding back tears. "We sure did, d-didn't we, sir?" she mumbled, mustering a small grin.

Noticing her ghastly appearance, Dr. Bahli frowned with his thin lips and asked, "And what's the matter with you?"

"Nothing, sir." she replied, looking at the ground. "It's just... such a relief is all. Um, this _victory_ is... a miracle, sir. I'm so relieved..."

The icey man looked at her, expressionless. After a painfully long time, he finally spoke. "Indeed," was all he said before returning to the medical bay.

* * *

Minerva finished wrapping the boy's leg and tied the bandage off into a bow, earning a small smile from the injured trooper. He'd suffered serious burns when practice with a flamethrower turned deadly. Apparently they had been unable to remove his friend from his armor before the plastic had melted into him. This one was lucky enough to be closest to the fire extinguisher. He looked at her adoringly for the gentle measures she took with him. When she listened to his story a few days prior he was honored to even have an audience. Having just turned 18, he wasn't even out of training yet.

"Why are you so nice to me?" he asked, whispering. He looked around to make sure that none of the others were listening.

Minerva smiled and glanced up at him as she packed up her supplies. "Because I like to be nice. And I like you. I like all of you boys." She zipped her case shut and sighed, grinning. "And besides, everyone deserves a little kindness every once in awhile."

The boy laughed quietly through his nose and nodded his head. "Well that's the first I've heard of it. I'll have to tell that to my squad leader. Maybe then when I come back he won't have a mop and bucket waiting on me for latrine duty." He smiled brightly, tapped the bandages on his burned leg, and added, "Not that I mind water anymore."

Laughing, she squeezed his shoulder and said, "Get some sleep, darling. I'll be back to check on you in the morning."

Delighted by the pet name she had given him, the boy flashed a toothy smile in her direction as she walked away. She put her kit under her arm and made her way down the length of the massive white room, towards the control panel. Brushing her short curls behind her ear, she cleared her throat and opened the little blue window. "Lights out, gentlemen. If anyone needs to use the lavatory speak now or forever hold your peace."

A resounding "No thank you, ma'am," erupted from the 20 or 30 men and boys in the facility.

Minerva gave a single nod. "Goodnight then. The medical droid will be in and out occasionally as always if you need anything."

"Goodnight, ma'am," spoke the room.

Without a second thought Minerva slid the lighting down to 0, with the only remaining lights coming from the patient's machines, the passing star system, and the bright blue security light around the borders of the room. Her white heels clicked across the black tile floor, triggering the door to slide open to the rest of the medical bay. She was practically blinded, as always, by the brightness of the operating lobby. Before she was out the door though, a young man still buttoning up his pajamas blew her a kiss. She was too tired to blush.

Dr. Bahli was seated at the break table sipping on a cup of coffee when she walked in to return her kit. The permanent dark circles that resided under his powdery blue eyes seemed even darker as he looked down at his datapad, his pointer finger flipping through memos as fast as he could. He seemed concerned, but Minerva was ready for this day to end; she decided she wouldn't ask what was wrong. The thought of her bed was practically orgasmic at this point, especially after the horrors she had witnessed this afternoon. Only a few more minutes and an elevator ride and she would be wrapped in its government issued sheets, as snug as a bug in a rug. All she wanted was a bit of privacy. Just enough to cry.

She shoved her plastic box full of gauze and rubbing alcohol into its place in the supply cabinet and locked the door with her ID number. As soon as the last digit was entered she turned on her heels and walked to the exit, her desire to leave forcing her body to move quickly.

Just as her fingers touched the long stainless steel handle, Dr. Bahli commented, "I wouldn't take off your uniform. A shower might be questionable, too." He swapped his data pad for his cup of coffee, and after taking a sip explained, "The Resistance was spotted making a move on Starkiller. If that thing blows we're going to get the worst of it when it comes to wounded. You know that old fool Renley on _Dreadnaught_ can't even tie his own shoelaces."

Punchy, Minerva leaned against the wall and asked, "You honestly think they're going to blow that thing up? You know that's the Supreme Leader's baby." She rubbed her tired eyes as she remembered watching the thing being put to use. She gathered herself as soon as she felt the tears resurfacing. Crossing her arms, she managed to look at him again to ask, "You don't think this is really going to be another Death Star, do you? Surely we've learned by now how to make a proper horrifying, indestructible, super weapon."

Without looking up from his datapad, Dr. Bahli stated, "One should always be prepared for the worst, Nurse Caulder."

Minerva stood there and stared at the floor for a moment before walking out into the hallway, not saying goodbye, just _see you later._ They both knew she would be back soon. She wrapped her arms around herself more tightly this time as she made the trek towards the service elevators, where three lieutenants of varying heights and builds were standing, talking about something while the elevator came back down to their level. They were babbling about Starkiller. She stood a few feet away from them, eavesdropping on their conversation without meaning to. All three of the men noticed her, but she didn't salute. One of them glanced down at the little nurse questioningly, but decided to pay the girl no mind. Her curls and innocent brown eyes had always helped to throw off predators, and besides, she was only a nurse. She was outdated and tired. They carried on as if she wasn't even there.

"My wife is on the command deck with him. She keeps memoing me about how nervous he seems. See?" commented the tallest of them.

He stuck out his wrist, where a small blue hologram floated out of his watch. Worried letters that were too small for Minerva to read were rounded off by multiple exclamation points.

The shortest man, barely an inch taller than the stunted Minerva, looked up at him. "Jeremy, she just hasn't been around the general before. It's only her first week on the job. You know he's always bugging out about some imperfection."

"Shh, don't talk about him out here." hushed the middle one, glancing up at the ceiling for cameras.

Ignoring his friends, the young man named Jeremy insisted, "But she keeps mentioning Resistance fighters infiltrating the base!"

"That's impossible! Those shields are impenetrable."

"Yeah, you know they don't have the tech."

The tall man considered their comments as he stuck out his watch again, a new memo shooting up at him. Suddenly the doors to the elevator opened, causing the three men to move forward in a huddle. Minerva went in with them, and stood by the buttons, pushing in her floor forcefully.

"Damn, this is bad," mumbled Jeremy. The two friends turned their heads around to look at him, as did Minerva. His eyes widened as he revealed, "Hux left the base."

"What?" asked the other two simultaneously. Everyone in the elevator gave eachother a nervous look, and slowly gathered around his projector watch.

For a while, Jeremy said nothing. He sat there reading his wife's memos with crazy eyes, his eyebrows arching in an unreadable way. He let out a shaky breath as his eyes began to water, making Minerva's heart race with anxiety. She hit the STOP button on the elevator, preventing the thing from moving. Dr. Bahli was right.

"What is it?" she asked, causing his friends to look up at him. "What's wrong?"

The visibly shaken young man pulled his wrist in closer to him and pushed a button on his watch, opening up a video feed. At first it was black, the signal weak, but eventually the image of a woman's lips came up on the hologram. She was panting, obviously scared and in a cramped space. As soon as she came into view the man yelled at her.

"Varas! Varas, are you alright? Can you hear me?" he screamed, his body shaking. "Varas, where are you?"

The audio that came back through the tiny hologram was cracked and distorted. "I'm underneath... desk... can... hear me?" She brought her datapad away from her face to show her husband that she was alright. There seemed to be smoke all around her, causing her to cough violently.

"Varas!" he cried. "Is there a way out? You need to get off of the base if they've blown the thermal oscillator!"

"I can't! Something's fallen through the roof of... command deck... the exit door... blocked!"

Sounds of rubble and falling debris covered up the rest of her attempt at communication. Suddenly, the screen went black again with a resounding blast, but the audio was still coming through. Everyone watched on in horror as they presumed she had been crushed.

"Varas! Varas!" he screamed, overcome with grief. "Varas! Are you alright?"

There wasn't a response, only the distorted sounds of fires burning and things breaking. Jeremy's face shifted into complete and total shock, as he began shouting into his wrist her name repeatedly. His two friends tried to comfort him, but Minerva had other plans. She opened the elevator door and ran out, headed back towards the medical center. Her heels clicked loudly as she stampeded on the door, grabbing a hold of the handle to prevent herself from falling. As soon as she entered the lobby she saw Dr. Bahli staring up at the notifications monitor, watching some woman talk about Starkiller Base.

She ran up beside him and immediately tuned in, breathing hard through her mouth. Without having to say a word, Dr. Bahli knew that she understood what was happening, and smiled strangely at the morbid thought of being right. The woman in charge of notifying _Finalizer_ was practically in tears as she began instructing deck commanders to move the ship out of range, and for the medical center to begin expecting wounded through the C, D, and G gates. As soon as the locations of the incoming patients had been read, the woman's eyes shifted away from the camera and onto whatever was behind her. You could see her face become illuminated with an orange glow, her hands rushing to cover her mouth in shock. Minerva felt a chill wash over her as she pieced together what had happened. Starkiller Base had just exploded.

The blast from the explosion ricocheted throughout the ship, causing Minerva to lose her balance and fall to the ground. The thick metal walls of the ship let out a long groan as it tried to hold itself together. Dr. Bahli dropped his favorite coffee cup, shattering it into a million white pieces. Managing to grab a hold of the wall to stabilize himself, he looked around the room as beakers and glassware slid off of the countertops to join his cup on the floor. The sound of the engine ports along their side of the ship igniting rattled through the medical center as the pilots fought against the blast. Each booster shone a bright orange as they were pushed to their max, causing the operating lobby to be illuminated in their nerve wracking glow. Dr. Bahli and Minerva watched tensely as the star destroyer held on against the devastating blast. Bits of the planet, pieces of other ships, and debris from the inner workings of the base flew by with startling speed, the rubble occasionally hitting _Finalizer_ in loud skipping thumps, only partially deflected by whatever was left of their shields. As soon as the battered ship had regained a completely upright position and the starboard ports were turned off, the doctor helped Minerva up.

The girl was shaking with nauseating disbelief at witnessing yet another planet full of people destroyed. Only a few hours ago had the Hosnian star system been eliminated. Was there no end to this cruelty? She was dizzy, practically on the verge of passing out before a well-meaning slap brought her up to speed. Dr. Bahli was screaming at her to get it together, and the sight of him so passionate made her focus on his words as best as she could.

"Go and check on the men already here," shouted the doctor, holding her shoulders. "I'll take the medical droids down to the transport gates and locate the wounded. Go! I'll contact you when I'm down there."

"Yes, sir!" she replied, incredibly nervous. As soon as Dr. Bahli had left her side, the girl ran out into the medical bay, her heart beating out of her chest. The men were out of their beds and screaming at each other to be quiet, watching the woman on the monitor try and explain what had just happened. Minerva went to the lights and turned them back on again to get a good look at the damage. A few things had fallen over, but all-in-all everything seemed to be alright. The control panel had bolted the devices and beds to the floor with emergency restraints, just as the system had practiced. For once in her life, Minerva was extremely grateful for First Order protocol.

"Is anyone hurt?" she asked in the loudest voice she could muster. Her hands flittered around as if she didn't know what to do with them, only adding to her already flighty, brittle appearance. A few protests came from patients who had been jerked out of sleep, but other than the occasional minor discomfort, everyone seemed to have made it out unharmed. A massive sigh of relief left her small frame, allowing her time to think. Remembering her list of patients and their ailments, Minerva hurried over to a man who had recently replaced his old prosthetic leg with a new one, just to make sure that the wires were still attached.

"Can you still move the cybernetics, sir?" She asked anxiously, picking up his purely mechanical leg and bending it at the knee. "Push it back down and see if we're still connected here. That blast might have shaken something lose."

He did as she asked, or at least tried to, and as soon as he realized that he couldn't feel it anymore, shook his head frustratedly. "Dammit!" he cursed. "Of course I can't move the blasted thing. I just got this model a week ago!" He hit his stainless steel thigh and shouted, "Don't worry, Miss Caulder, I've had all sorts of prosthetics. Just give me a few minutes and I'll have it running again. You go and help those wounded coming in through the transport gates **.** We're fine here."

Minerva looked around the room, double checking that she hadn't missed anything before shaking her head in agreement. "You're sure you don't mind, Captain Chambra? The skin might start rejecting the leg without the proper wiring. I can go and fetch my tool kit. It won't take me long to plug in your N.S. bearings."

"No, no," he replied, swatting her away. "Hurry up and help move them in. That explosion was... _devastating_ for our Order. It's safe to assume that there will be a great many casualties." His eyes clouded over thinking about it, but he quickly gathered himself into a serious and sullen frown. "Now go. I'll manage them until your return."

Minerva nodded and hesitantly backed away, panic slowly setting in as the fear of seeing so many patients down at the gates worked on her stomach. She imagined the badly burned bodies and the haunting stench of them; the eerie sweetness of their baking muscle and the awful frying of their hair. How many of them would die, and how many of them were already dead? Having served on Finalizer for only the better part of a year, Minerva had seen very little action compared to what was waiting for her in the transport gates. She questioned herself, and wondered whether or not she would snap under the pressure. Taking a moment to stop and think, she quickly patched together what little courage she had left and made her move.

She swallowed her fear and ran out of the med bay, stopping at the supply cabinets to grab a field kit and sling the straps over her shoulders like a backpack. The massive black bag dwarfed her in size and she struggled to carry it, but she knew that the people coming in would need more than just a band-aid. With everything she had she jogged to the elevator, slamming the hangar level button with her fist. Set to emergency mode, the thing took off like a flash, sending Minerva straight to the bottom in seconds.

Red warning lights were the only thing left on in the elevator after the blast, and their incessant flashing made it difficult to see which floor she was on. She leaned in to the control panel to watch the numbers jump from 34 to 1, and as soon as the doors slid open she hobbled out, looking around the dimly lit hallway to the gates. Squinting her eyes, she was able to make out what the sign said at the top of the wall, an arrow pointing right telling her which way to go. She flipped her body around and began jogging down the winding metal hallway, the sounds of alarms going off in the distance behind her. Her breathing was rough as the weight of the bag seemed to double. Her shoulders were pulled backwards by it, causing her to lose her sense of balance. After a minute of awkward running, she rounded the corner into the massive hangar.

The ceilings were unbelievable in height, and as she gaped up at them she realized that ships had started relocating to make room for the incoming vessels. A troop carrier was headed her way, and suddenly she felt as if she might be run over. She quickly dodged the hulking thing and narrowly escaped the ramp that jutted forth after landing. A few pilots that were on the floor yelled at her to get out of the way, but she was too focused on getting to Dr. Bahli to shout back. As soon as she had navigated the length of ships, she found herself out in the open of the unusually empty room.

There was Dr. Bahli. The man in the white coat.

"Doctor!" she called breathily, waving an arm as best she could without falling over. "Doctor, I've brought another field kit!"

As she trod closer to him and the medical droids, something started to seem off to her. As soon as she realized what it was, her heart sank. Where were all of the ships? The doctor looked on out of the force field at the darkness of space, waiting on someone, _anyone_ to come in. From the time of the explosion to now, not a single soul had made it aboard.

"Where are they?" she asked, eyes wide. She put down the heavy bag and approached the doctor. "Did... Did no one make it? Where is everyone?"

Without taking his eyes from the shield he stated, "There were just that many casualties. Believe me, I've called _Dreadnaught_ and _Imperator_. They've got no one." As if his own statement had woken him up, he drooped his shoulders and rubbed his tired eyes. "I've told them to keep waiting anyway. Surely, for the love of the Order, someone's made it out. The general himself was on the base."

"General Hux?" asked Minerva, remembering what the man in the elevator's wife had said about him seconds before her death. "I heard that he fled the base before it blew. He left the command center with minutes to spare. Why isn't he back aboard the ship already?"

The doctor gave her a questioning look, but before he could respond a ruined hulk of a shuttle appeared outside the shield. The medical droids immediately prepped themselves, with sounds of their supplies and various arms shifting around echoing throughout the hangar. One of the engines had exploded, causing the ship to limp in miraculously. As soon as the entire body of the ship had made it past the shield membrane it fell to the ground in an incredible thud, crunching the metal landing gear and denting the floor with a great screech. Two emergency relief droids floated overhead to put out the engine fire, the water from their hoses turning it into a grey smoke. Sparks flew as the ship dug into the hangar until finally, it stopped, prompting the medical team to move in.

Because the ramp had been smashed, the passengers pried open the emergency exit door by the ship's wing, causing a black cloud of dense smoke to spring up from the cockpit. A pilot ran out grasping the hand of a little boy, obviously a party member's son, who was coughing up a lung as the water from the response team soaked him. Two more men crawled out like insects, their arms and legs disguised by the grey swirls of smoke. They were carrying a woman under her arms and legs, as she had blacked out from lack of oxygen. The first thing that Minerva noticed about her was the fact that she was pregnant, and extremely far along.

She ran to her side as Dr. Bahli checked the little boy, wiping dirty tears away from his chubby face. Minerva could hear him screaming, "Mommy! Mommy!" as the medical droids dragged him away from the ship. She put her wrist to the mother's chest and allowed her bracelet device to scan the woman's body in a quick blue glow.

As the men continued to carry her, Minerva asked them, "H-How long has she been unconscious? Is she wounded or b-burned?"

"Lady Kurlish passed out from the pain as soon as she was burned," informed one of them in a strained voice, pausing to cough. "It's on her left side. The fire grazed her just as we closed the ramp to the ship."

Minerva shook her head and maneuvered around them, making her way to the pregnant woman's side. Her eyes widened as she examined the blood red blisters and melted black skin across her ribs, hip, and stomach. "My god, no wonder she passed out. Her dress is burned to her body." she mumbled to herself, looking to her bracelet for her health information. Her oxygen levels were extremely low, just as she thought, and her blood pressure was extremely high, creating the perfect conditions within her body to kill her poor baby. Thinking of the child, she asked, "Where is the father? Did he make it?"

The pilot carrying her legs grunted, "No. The ceiling fell in and hit him in the head." Morbidly he added, "We left without the body."

The medical droids had a gurney prepared for her, and Minerva helped the men put the woman down. After she pushed a few buttons on the side of the machine, a lifeforce screen covered the patient in a blue light, helping her with her breathing. Immediately after her vital signs could be projected, a bright red warning screen popped up, alerting Minerva to the fact that something was very, very wrong. The system inside the gurney began searching for a diagnosis, prompting the nurse to head out with the pilots as quickly as possible. However, just as Minerva was about to leave with them, another ship showed up outside of _Finalizer_.

As soon as it's magnificent black wings collapsed into position, Minerva immediately recognized it as belonging to the triumvirate. Unlike the little family's burning remnants of a ship, the command shuttle was spotless. It landed elegantly in the hangar, as if they weren't in much of a hurry. Knowing that her patient could die, Minerva quickly got back to work, focusing on keeping the lady and her baby alive. One of the medical droids could help the shuttle passengers if they needed it.

The pregnant woman was still dead to the world, and wasn't giving any signs of waking up soon. The computer was desperately scanning, but couldn't provide an answer for what was wrong. Even with oxygen being pumped into her system, her eyes remained tightly closed, her breathing difficult. Somehow, between the time that she'd been placed on the gurney to then, little red bumps had appeared on her throat and mouth. It was incredibly bizzare. Minerva reached into the gurney and felt for her pulse, pressing her thumb into the lady's thin wrist. Her heartbeat was slow, but there. They were halfway across the hangar when suddenly a commanding voice yelled at her to stop.

"You! Nurse!" shouted someone from the command shuttle. "Come here immediately!"

Before she looked up to see who it was, she hollered back, "This patient is in critical condition, sir. One of the medical droids can help you with-"

"I said for you to come here, girl! _Now!_ " Screamed the voice. "Look at me when I'm addressing you!"

Still busy with the woman, she ignored him for the sake of her patient, but noticed that the gurney had stopped moving. The pilots helping to push it had stopped in their tracks, and were obviously looking at something else. Irritated by their apparent lack of understanding regarding their lady's condition, Minerva glanced up at the men and shouted, "Keep going! The baby is in distress! She'll die if we don't get there quickly! I can't diagnose her here!"

The men refused to look at her, and were instead gazing at and saluting to the other end of the hangar. Angry, Minerva glanced over to what they were so focused on, but when she saw who had been addressing her, she swallowed regretfully. The redheaded General Hux himself was glaring at her with his piercing blue eyes as a man was lowered down from the shuttle behind him. She looked at the ground, unsure of what to do. After a few seconds, she decided to entrust the woman to the droids and to Dr. Bahli. _She will be alright_ , she told herself. She gave the woman one last sympathetic stare before she began running towards the general.

Her little white heels clicked against the hard tile floor as she hurried to her leader's side. As soon as she reached him she paused to adjust her skirt before offering a nervous salute. "My apologies, general. That woman is pregnant, and I was only trying to-"

"You're that Caulder girl, aren't you?" interrupted Hux, twisting his gloves in his hands as he looked everywhere but at her. He was nervous and jumpy, like a child who had done something wrong and was trying to hide it. His face was even paler than usual, and it seemed like he could never quite stand still. It was apparent that he cared very little about what she had to say, seeing as how his precious base had just blown up -on his watch- not 20 minutes past. Before Minerva had a chance to respond to his question, he scolded her by saying, "The next time I have to scream for your attention you will be off of my ship and back on board that tin-can _Perseverance_ with your father."

Minerva blinked, "Yes, sir. I'm sorry, sir."

"I never should have agreed to any remaining human nurses," he spouted fumedly, seeming to preach at her in every flitting direction. He stuck a judgemental finger in her face. "Look at you. How inefficiently tired you are. You look as if you've seen a ghost. You aren't going to cry are you? Well, I don't know; you seem more like the fainting type to me. Are you going to drop dead here in a moment?"

Confused, nervous, and already on edge from what she had seen earlier that day, Minerva hastily tried to defend herself by stuttering, "N-No, sir!" Hoping that no one had ratted her out about having to run to the bathroom to collect herself, she replied, "It's just that... the base... it's such a huge loss, sir." Suddenly her eyes shifted as she realized something. She whispered, "I had friends there..."

Hux didn't move, glaring a hole right through her. After he made sure that she was good and stunned, he continued on as if nothing had happened. Pointing to the man on the gurney rather accusingly, Hux told Minerva that, "This man will have no access to a bacta tank, per the Supreme Leader's orders, and he will have no pain relief of any kind." He began putting his gloves back on, making quick glances to the medical droids around the hangar. "If I instructed a droid to do this I think it would malfunction. Maybe there is a use for you still. Can I trust you to treat the man as ordered?"

Minerva turned to look at her new patient. She could see that Lady Kurlish wasn't the only one who had been badly burned, but the dark-haired man's wounds seemed to be much different. She was able to discern that they had somehow been cauterized, as if the flames from the base had burned hot enough to immediately create and close off the wound. They had taken off his shirt to expose the angry red slash that stretched all the way from his right shoulder to his face. Under his left collarbone was a spot of the same nature, but it seemed to be an extremely deep laceration, almost like blaster fire but with an extremely hot beam.

His left hand was trembling and covered in blood as he pressed it against his side. She noticed now that he had blown a hole in his abdomen the size of a coffee cup, and was applying what little pressure he could muster to try and stop the bleeding. He had clearly lost a lot of blood, and was slipping in and out of consciousness. _Why hadn't these men helped him?_ she asked herself. _They haven't even bothered to give him a rag._

His eyes showed a type of pain behind them, but not the kind that he should be feeling. It was emotional pain. Such an obvious sadness that it made Minerva curious. Who was he?

"You can trust me, sir," she replied, maintaining eye contact with the broken toy. She looked back at Hux and asked, "But why must he be denied treatment? If he was placed in the bacta tank his wounds would be healed one hundred times as quickly. I can promise you that he would be out of the medical bay by tomorrow morning."

Hux glared at her. "I asked you for your loyalty, Caulder, not your questions. These are orders direct from our Supreme Leader. Isn't that good enough for you?"

A small tension grew between them, but Minerva speedily obeyed him. "Of course, sir." She said, looking him in the eye to make it sincere. "I will care for the patient as charged."

* * *

Minerva let out a string of curses as she backed the gurney into the elevator, the emergency sirens still blaring at ear-piercing volume. The man's light brown eyes were still open, but it was only a matter of time before he would black out. The blood gushing from his side had turned darker as time had passed, telling Minerva that an organ had been punctured somewhere along the line. She watched as the elevator crawled back up to the medical bay, glancing down at her patient with each passing digit, her head on a swivel, as if she was expecting him to disappear. His hand was slipping off of the blaster wound, but Minerva put it back for him. She kept her gloved hand on top of his and pressed it against the seemingly bottomless hole of blood.

He looked at her with his sleepy eyes, half shut and grey as he fought the urge to pass out. He stared at the dark brown orbs that floated nervously in her skull as they searched his body with intense calculation and hypothesis. She appeared to be incredibly afraid and undeniably disturbed about something, as occasional reassuring whispers passed through her chapped lips in a subconscious attempt to calm herself. Watching her flit and flitter with uncertainty was annoying to him, and it was plain to see that she was still fairly new to the job.

" _Pathetic_." He murmured.

Minerva flipped around to look at him in disbelief. "Please, don't talk. Don't tire yourself." She replied, taking a handkerchief and wiping the sweat off of his forehead before it landed in his eyes. She stuck the soaking thing back in her pocket and checked his vital signs on the edge of the gurney. After she read a few things she looked away, more tense than before.

"I don't even have to read you," he mumbled, parting his thick lips slowly, "to know what you're thinking about." He let out a long sigh and winced at how the movement felt in his chest. With sad eyes he groaned, " _Stop touching me_."

" _Shh_." Minerva gave him a pleading look. "Please, we're almost there. It's going to be alright." Her brown eyes shot to the door as the elevator finally came to a stop. She walked behind him and placed her hands on the gurney's motion controls, pushing him out into the hallway.

Rambling from blood loss, the delirious man below her mumbled, "Let me die. No one would miss me anyway. Not anymore." He frowned weakly, eyes closed, and asked, "Is he angry with me?"

" _Shhh!_ " sounded the little nurse. "Sir, please don't die -or even _think_ of dying- anytime soon! Stay with me!"

"Let me go!" He croaked through strained breath. He quickly began to lose his mind, as he questioned Minerva strangely. He asked her in a harsh whisper, "Why did I listen to you? Why did you make me do it?"

"Do what, sir?" asked Minerva, beyond concerned. Realizing that she was steadily losing him, she decided that talking might help after all. "Sir, what did you do? Stay with me! Answer me!"

His vision slipped. Just before he blacked out, the man's last words were, "I trusted you."

* * *

 **Hey! Thanks so much for checking out my story! Please leave a review to let me know what you think so far, what I did wrong, and what I did right! I love hearing back from my readers! Thanks again for stopping by! Expect the next chapter very soon!**

 **\- Molly**


	2. Day 2

**DAY TWO**

Minerva took advantage of the man's lack of consciousness to begin cleaning out his wound and start sewing him back up. She'd hooked him to a pint of Type O negative, replenishing the massive amount of blood he'd lost on the base. His black pants were soaked with the stuff, glistening and slick. It was when she was sewing up his side that she realized that he'd been struck in the thigh as well; the fabric around the wound burnt to a crisp. Minerva instructed her assistant, a medical droid called BO-3, to cut off his pants and to remove his shoes to help with circulation.

The droid did as she asked, taking its bone saw and using it to cut the fabric with perfect precision. Before it rid him of the soiled cloth BO-3 went to his feet, removing his tall black boots with a slight yanking action. When the boots fell to the floor the droid took off his socks, and then in one fowl swoop whipped off his pants, leaving him to his dark grey undergarments, turned black at the waistband as it soaked up the drippings from his wound. His left leg was colored brown, the dried blood sticking to his skin and covering his hair like syrup. The area smelled of copper, reminding Minerva of the unnatural metal taste that came with losing a tooth or from sucking your thumb after a paper cut. He reeked of it.

The patient was unbelievably pale, and his full, pouting lips were painted a strange shade of blue. However, his vital signs looked good, and he seemed to be stabilizing. It wouldn't be long until he woke up again. Minerva took her time with the sutures, making sure to keep them high and tight. She wasn't looking forward to his screams when the pain finally hit him, nor the guilty feelings she would have for not hooking him up to some pain relief. She felt like she was killing him; like a nurse in distant history, when limbs were often amputated for no reason and the smallest illness could end someone's life. With all of this remarkable technology lying around her, what was she doing treating him this way?

 _This is ridiculous,_ she thought to herself. _He'll be bedridden for weeks._ _I've already bruised him so much just by sewing him up. I have to give him something!_

"You take so long with your sewing. Why don't you leave him to me?" asked BO-3, its green digital eyes blinking harshly as it floated over her shoulder. It's purely electronic voice droned on hatefully as it examined her work more closely. "I know," it said, "why not embroider a pillow? Even _you_ can not kill them."

Minerva shut her eyes at the constant scrutiny that she'd received from her assistant since its arrival. She replied, "I'm not killing him. I stabilized him."

"Look at what you have done to the skin!" it exclaimed, shaking its swiveling head from side to side. "He will have a horrible scar."

She tied the ends of the thread into a knot and cut the rest free. "Of course he'll have a scar! Didn't you see the size of the wound?" As she got up from her stool and plopped the forceps into the sterilizing pan, she added with a hint of disbelief in her voice, "It's a miracle he's still alive."

The droid sarcastically agreed, "Yes, with you in charge of him. My systems can not believe that the general trusted you with this. You are going to kill the patient!"

Minerva flipped around to look at her assistant, eyes wide with stress. "General Hux told me not to give him anything for the pain! The supreme leader himself ordered it! Don't accuse me of starting this nonsense!" She began furiously wiping her forceps clean, the scent of the rubbing alcohol making her eyes water. Soon enough she was crying, overwhelmed and exhausted. She turned away from the droid's harsh gaze, fully aware that it was right. She felt so guilty.

"Look at you," spat BO-3, floating away from her to check the patient's vitals. "Do not think for a second that I have not been scanning your psyche. Your adrenaline levels are ridiculously high. You can not handle it. You do not deserve to be on the floor!"

With this, the little nurse snapped. "Get out! Stop examining me!" Shouted Minerva, pointing to the door. Her breathing was harsh and her hands were shaking; it was a wonder that she'd been able to sew him shut. She could feel the judgement radiating from the droid and began to tremble with rage. "What is this? This isn't a part of your programming, surely! Why are you saying these things to your superior? I'm just as qualified as a B level droid and you know it!"

The droid answered, "Because you are not allowing me to carry out my duties! One of which is to inform my superior when she is _no longer needed_." The angular grey droid floated towards the door as she commanded, but was obviously reluctant to leave. "The First Order created me to replace human medical teams. You are outdated technology, Nurse Caulder, and the Order has no room for it."

It left.

Minerva let out a sigh of relief as soon as the incredulous thing was out of earshot. The pressure that she felt with its perfect presence was horrifying for her self-esteem, especially since it could read how frightened she was. The whole day had gone to shit in a matter of minutes, and since then she'd never been able to shake the horrible feelings that clung to her. There were so many things to worry about. So many terrifying things she'd seen. She'd never felt so broken and alone.

Her patient let out a gurgled sigh, telling Minerva that he'd soon be awake. Her brown eyes shifted to a jar of bacta on the operating tray. _He doesn't deserve to hurt like this,_ she thought. She grabbed the jar and looked around the room, making sure that no one could possibly be watching her. Unlike the medical bay, where all of the stormtroopers stayed, this was one of a few private rooms, reserved for high-ranking officials and members of the triumvirate, and so had no cameras or microphones anywhere in the space. Gathering her courage, she twisted off the lid of the jar, her clammy hands making it difficult to get a grip. As soon as it was opened, she set it back on the metal tray with a thud and put on another pair of plastic gloves, stretching them over her hands with a snap.

Taking two fingers, she dipped them into the jar and brought out a big greasy blob of the stuff. She'd always thought that bacta smelled and felt just like petroleum jelly, and as she spread it generously over the man's massive gash, she could see it already working wonders. His body, originally tense, visibly relaxed, and let out a sigh of relief. The redness died down almost instantly, and the tissue around her thread no longer had any threat of infection. After another few dips into the jar, and the whole wound was covered, she took off her gloves and returned it to the tray.

She watched as his breathing slowed, the urge to wake-up not so important now. Minerva couldn't help but smile from helping him, but knew that she had disobeyed orders. She quickly took the jar of bacta and hid it in the drawer by his bed, covering it with some of the fabric that had been cut away from his legs. She put the gloves in the biohazard box, immediately incinerating them.

After all of the evidence had been put away, she took a moment to look at her patient. He had such a long face, and a nose that was remarkably big and pronounced. His cheeks were flat and dotted with tiny brown moles, and his eyebrows were angled down rather frustratedly. It was a shame about the magnificent scar that stretched across the half of it. The bright red slash traveled down his neck and to his shoulder, which caused Minerva to look at the rest of him.

His shoulders were broad and lead into muscular arms, attached to big hands with fat thumbs. He was lean and rough, with white scars from other bouts and battles. His feet were very big and callused on the bottoms, and it looked like he'd possibly broken and rebroken his big toe from one time to another. His body seemed very lived in, and if Minerva hadn't known any better, she might have thought that he was oddly handsome. He was gargantuan and hauntingly masculine, and his body was almost too big for the bed. To her, he didn't look like the kind of person who wanted to die. His hair was too pretty.

In the elevator, he'd been ranting and raving about it, and about how if he died no one would miss him. She wondered how much of it he'd really meant. It was understandable that he would be upset; Starkiller Base had over 100,000 members on board at the time of the explosion, and if he had any friends, they were most certainly dead. In the past hour, no one else had made it onto _Finalizer_. Only the tiny family and their pilots could claim victory in that cruel fact. She pitied her patient, thinking of the friends she herself had most certainly lost.

Minerva was a part of the last graduating class of human nurses in the entire Order; trained aboard the mothership _Perseverance_ alongside 17 other students. Medical droids had begun to replace the flawed and imperfect human attempts at care-giving, and even some of Minerva's own teachers were entirely robotic. The other students were like Minerva in the fact that they were all women, had influential fathers that could put them in the program, and were putting off the idea of marriage. The girls were lovely and dedicated and sweet. She'd loved them all, but one thing had always separated her from the rest, and that was uncertainty. Minerva was constantly questioning herself and her surroundings, always worrying whether she had made the right choice. The other girls followed orders blindly and faithfully, never once wondering whether or not the First Order really had their best interests at heart.

About a year ago now, Minerva and the others had graduated, and been assigned their stations. While most of the girls stayed on the mother ships to help with childbirth and elder care, a few had been sent to Starkiller Base, and, like Minerva, to star destroyers. The girls who'd been assigned Starkiller Base were honored, and the others were incredibly excited for them. All of them but Minerva. She questioned it like she questioned everything, and for once, she'd proven herself right. It was a suicide mission, and a harsh kind of justice.

Her instructor had told her that she'd been given the assignment of _Finalizer_ because she thought she could handle it. That she could see the carnage of battle and think quickly enough to find a rational explanation for it. _Boy, was she wrong,_ she told herself. Minerva looked out of the room's massive window to the debris from the base that was floating by. It made her nervous, and so, after checking to make sure the coast was clear, she took a thin silver bottle from her pocket and dumped out a handful of pills into her palm.

Without even a sip of water she swallowed three of the little blue tablets, hoping desperately that the valium would calm her down. She'd been taking them religiously for the past 3 months, and it was clear that she had become addicted to the numbing feeling. It was euphoric what the pills could do to her, and for a brief, precious moment, her thoughts weren't constantly clouded by those horrible images of death and destruction. After she got them down, she hid her face from her patient, as if he were awake to see her.

Of course she was ashamed, but not as much as she was afraid. Packing up her things, she decided to go and check on the young mother that was recuperating down the hall. They wouldn't know what she'd done. She rubbed her eyes and looked at her patient one last time. _You didn't see anything, bud,_ she thought.

* * *

 **HOUR 1**

 **1 KNOWN INFECTED**

"It's radiation," shouted Dr. Bahli, locking the octagonal glass door from the inside. He was decked out in all sorts of gear, and holding up his gloved hands to keep everything else clean. His fingers and palms covered in some sort of fluid. "Don't come in here until you've put a suit on. This is the most potent stuff I've ever seen."

Minerva nodded and walked towards the remaining hazmat suit. She took off her heels and stepped into the boots, the electronic mesh of the suit zipping itself onto her body automatically. As soon as the hood had been connected and put into place, the suit turned on, pulling up the patient's file on her visor. Even though she was obviously reading it, Dr. Bahli shouted information to her from the operating room.

His voice could be heard in her hood, speakers placed right by her ears. He explained, through quick breaths, that, "there's nothing we can do to save her, I don't think. This is beyond me _and_ the droids. I've never seen anything like it and they don't have any records of similar cases. It's fascinating."

Minerva quirked a brow at the doctor's strange enthusiasm about the patient's imminent death. She could feel herself frown at the thought of losing her, and wondered how her son would cope with losing his mother. "What happened to the boy and the pilots?" she asked, approaching the door. "Are they in quarantine?"

"Of course," he answered. "We found traces of radiation on them as well, but we're hoping that the treatment I've set up for them will clear it up. If they come down with anything like this poor woman here, I doubt they'll last the week."

Minerva sighed with disappointment, but tried not to focus on it. Turning her attention back to the woman's chart, she noticed something incredible. Shocked, she asked, "The baby's still alive?"

"Yes," he replied, releasing the lock on the door with his datapad. As he did so, the operating lobby was shut down to prevent the radiation from leaking out. As soon as the blast doors were lowered, Dr. Bahli let Minerva in, the smell almost knocking her down.

She let out an audible scream as the woman -or what had become of her- came into view. A red, bloated body covered in apple-sized lesions lay on the operating table, pus and other bodily fluids leaking from the sores. You could no longer see her face, and Minerva noticed that locks of her hair had fallen out onto the floor below. She had expanded out of her dress, and threatened to cover up the table if something wasn't done soon. Medical droids were attempting to ease the woman's pain by giving her an anesthetic, but it didn't seem to be working. You could hear her groaning from beneath the boils.

Minerva leaned against the wall and threw up in her suit, the smell combined with the disturbing image of the mother proving to be too much for her. Within a few seconds, however, her suit recognized and responded to the vomit, and vacuumed it out of the hood as best it could, leaving behind a greasy spot on her visor. Sliding down to the floor, she was desperate to catch her breath, but the stomach-churning stench of the body made her nauseous. Her vision was slipping, and the dizziness it caused made her want to vomit again, but a stern shake put an end to the idea.

"Get up, Miss Caulder!" Shouted Dr. Bahli, picking her up by the shoulders. "I need you!"

She looked at him through his mask and shook her head. "P-please don't make me. I'll be sick again." She shut her eyes when the woman entered her line of sight and let out a shaky sigh to steady herself. "Y-you don't want me. I can't do this!"

Dr. Bahli stared her down from behind his mask. "You _can_ do this," he growled. "Do you know why?"

" _Why?_ " She gagged.

"Because that baby needs your help. You can save its life!" he shouted, letting go of her. He turned and pointed to Lady Kurlish, the baggy sleeve of his hazmat suit crunching as he did so. "I've already prepared a tray for you. We're going to do a c-section. The boils have grown over her vagina, and I don't think that she has any feeling left in her lower half."

" _What!?_ " cried Minerva, frightened by how foreign it all seemed. " _How is that even possible!?_ "

The doctor took her by the wrist and pulled her towards the bloated body. Upon closer inspection, Minerva realized that she could see the blisters growing before her eyes, especially where her wound had originally been, along her side. Dr. Bahli breathed, "I think this is from the phantom energy we had harnessed inside Starkiller Base. The thermal oscillator transformed the energy through nuclear fission, thus creating the most powerful and direct atomic blast the galaxy has ever seen." He stared at her worriedly and added, "And this is the effect of that radiation."

He picked up the datapad to check on the progress the droids had made on putting the woman to sleep. He visibly relaxed, nodding approvingly at his metal assistants. "Thank the stars, she's under." he exclaimed, pushing the tray of tools towards his trembling nurse. "We must hurry. As soon as the baby is born we must rush it out of the room and into the safe zone by the operating lobby. Sure, it will be exposed, but we'll soon have it in a bacta tank. If all goes well, it should be fine."

Minerva shot him a scared glance, but if anything good could come out of this horrible situation, she was determined to make it happen. She picked up a scalpel and twirled it around in her hand, trying to give herself the courage to do her job. After letting out a shaky breath, she whispered, "I'll do the c-section, but please, promise me that... that you'll put this woman out of her misery." She looked him in the eye and asked, "There's nothing we can do, is there?"

The doctor shook his head. "No."

Minerva looked at the woman's massive stomach and swallowed. Hard. During all her years at the academy and the time she'd spent on this ship, she had never encountered something so appalling. But somewhere, deep down, she found the smallest bit of strength, and clung to it with feverish intensity. The valium was finally kicking in, and she swiftly found herself becoming oh so very, very numb. Empty almost. And without another word, she piloted her body to begin the procedure.

As she cleaned the mother's abdomen to prepare for the incision, Dr. Bahli mumbled, "If I remember correctly, this was your area of expertise, was it not?"

Candidly she recalled, "My fastest delivery time was 4 and a half minutes from cut to shut." As she grabbed the scalpel, she added jokingly, "I still don't know why _Finalizer_ wanted a midwife."

Watching her slice the patient open, Dr. Bahli said, "Because a midwife can be just as tough as a doctor when the time calls for it." He looked at the woman's ruined face and stated, "Just like us you're there at the beginning and you're there at the end. And just like us you learn to forget the end to keep the beginning in sight."

As soon as the cut had been made in the lady's abdomen, Minerva paused to prepare herself. Streams of pus and blood trickled into the cut and onto her exposed muscle, which she immediately suctioned out. She shouted sternly over the sounds of the vacuum to Dr. Bahli, "It will take me a moment to cut through the layers of tissue and to move the bladder out of the way, so please, keep the area clean. And I'll need the droids to come round with forceps when I reach the baby's head."

"Of course," he replied, nodding to his assistants. The droids hovered away from the table in search of new tools, abandoning their original task of saving the patient's life. All attention was turned towards the baby, whose image appeared on the screen next to the mother's heartbeat and blood pressure. It was at a good angle, but Minerva knew she needed to hurry. At the bottom of the screen was the baby's heartbeat, which was slowing by the second.

The valium caused her a bit of dizziness as she returned her focus to the incision, and her own heart rate was questionable, but even in this drug induced false calm, she felt better than she did fully sober in this little metal world. The things that loomed over her had backed off, giving her room to breathe. As soon as the droids were in position beside her, she began the procedure.

Slicing through the muscle, she found the bladder, pushing it down and out of the way with a forcep provided by a droid. She placed it between the lining of the woman's womb and the top of the organ, pulling it and her cut away muscle out of the work space. Expanding the opening to prepare for the baby, Minerva began gently slicing through the exterior of the womb. Careful not to cut the baby's head, she moved the tissue out of the way with her gloved fingers. She grazed over the baby's slicked back bits of hair and motioned to the droids.

"Place a forcep on either side of its head," she told them. "Once you have a firm but gentle grip on it, slowly pull it out. I need to check and see if the umbilical cord has wrapped around its neck."

They did as she asked, pulling up information on a proper delivery from their databanks. Slowly, they inserted the forceps, separating the baby and bringing it forward. As soon as it's little pink face was visible, Minerva felt around its neck with her fingers, giving the droids the ok. Grabbing the tiny thing by its shoulders, Minerva pulled the baby into the world, the poor thing already squirming and desperate to cry. Laying it on the tray, she took an aspirator and stuck it down its throat, clearing out all of the liquid and mucus from the lungs. She quickly placed it in its nose too, making sure that the little thing could breathe. The baby let out a loud cry, letting everyone know that they'd made it.

As she continued to quickly go through the familiar processes, a smile spread across Minerva's face. She hadn't delivered a baby since the academy, but had never forgotten the joy of meeting a new and precious life. She turned to Dr. Bahli and hurriedly announced, "It's a girl!"

"Go!" shouted the doctor. "Get her out of here and into a bacta tank as soon as possible. There's one waiting in 2-18."

Lovingly she wrapped the baby girl in a towel; a squirming, screaming bundle full of life. Beautiful, innocent life. She ran out of the operating room with her, holding her to the chest of her massive hazmat suit.

Over the next few hours, Minerva did as commanded, saving the baby from the radiation that killed her mother. She sat there beside her bassinet for a moment and held her, knowing that it was what the woman would have wanted, despite never having spoken a word.

* * *

 **HOUR 5**

 **2 KNOWN INFECTED**

After being granted an hour to shower and eat, Minerva felt dramatically better. She had washed off the stench of sweat and vomit from the previous 27 hours of her 48 hour shift, and was even able to grab a piece of flatbread from the cafeteria before First Meal, skipping the long line of troopers waiting for breakfast. Although she was tired, the memory of the newborn baby girl brought a grin that stuck with her all the way back from the mess hall. Even after all of that destruction, a new and beautiful life had come from the wreckage.

When she returned to the medical bay, she checked her charts and grabbed her datapad, wanting to check on her mystery man's progress. Propping the thin plastic clipboard under her arm, she walked down the hallway to the private rooms. She opened his door as quietly as she could, not sure if he was still sleeping. Sure enough, he was, and his mouth was open just a sliver as he barely uttered a snore. He was exhausted.

She walked in and placed her datapad on a tray, making her way to get a look at all of the machines she'd plugged him up to. Everything looked great, and she gave the sleeping man a thumbs up. Moving the sheet that the droid had brought for him away from his chest, she peeked down at her sutures. The bacta had worked wonderfully, and soon she would be able to take them out, a week's worth of healing done in as little as 5 or 6 hours. Tucking him back in, she grabbed his chart to update his status. Pulling up a chair that was close to his bed, Minerva took out her pen and began to scribble.

When that was done, she sat there and folded her hands, looking off into space as she thought about her day. It felt wonderful to sit down. Within a few minutes however, she slowly began to drift off to sleep herself, and pretty soon she had dozed off without difficulty for the first time in weeks. Sleep welcomed her like a long lost friend, and enveloped her with relief. There was no use trying to fight it, as her body needed it desperately. She sat in a slump, dead to the world.

About thirty minutes later, BO-3 hovered into the room, and as soon as it saw the nurse sleeping on duty, it threw a fit. It spoke on high volume that, "Nurse Caulder has no right to be sleeping. Your shift is over in 20 hours, 17 minutes, and 32 seconds. Remove yourself from the patient's room immediately! This is a private r-"

 _Crash!_

The medical droid flew into the wall with a bang, denting it's head and cracking the pole that acted as its neck. Before it fell to the ground however, it then proceeded to fly, as if pushed, into the ceiling, then violently into the floor. Sparks flew from the cracks in its metal outsides, and it began to squirm. With a strange screeching sound, it finally gave up the ghost, the light behind its eyes shorting out. Minerva stared at it in shock, unsure of what had just happened, but when a hand came into her peripheral vision, she flipped her head around to look.

It was the patient, and he was awake. His sculpted arm was stuck out straight, a vein popping out of his forearm forcefully as his hand closed into a fist. Panting, he let the limb drop back onto his chest, the blood transfusion obviously still taking a toll on him from earlier.

"Annoying little shit," he whispered.

Minerva looked at him with astonishment. " _Did you do that?_ " she asked, sitting up straight in her chair. When he didn't respond, she stood up and made her way over to the droid. She knelt down beside her old assistant and pushed it onto its chest. Upon closer examination, she realized that its processor appeared to have been squeezed in half. She turned around to look at her patient again, but this time she asked a different question. Suddenly, it all made since.

"Are you Kylo Ren?"

Images of the shadowy figure that stormed down the halls of this ship like a beast surfaced in her mind. His horrendous reputation and terrifying presence had terrified Minerva in the past, but seeing the man unmasked and in such a fragile condition almost made her want to pinch his cheek. He reminded her of a puppy, acting scary because he didn't understand that he wasn't. He was tall, dark, and handsome. Not vicious, fearsome, and mean.

Kylo Ren looked at her with sad eyes, the massive scar on his face adding to his defeated look. He was obviously in pain from it, as he barely even moved to breathe, and the scarring on his shoulder and chest was extremely sensitive. Wincing, he groaned, "That's what they call me."

As if meeting a celebrity, Minerva stumbled over her words. "Do y-you need... an-anything, sir? Some water maybe?" She flipped around to grab a cup for him. "Let me, um, get you something to-"

A glass of water floated from the tray in front of her and into his hand. She blinked in disbelief at his abilities, but at the same time found herself fascinated. She watched as he pressed the glass to his lips and drank every last drop of the liquid inside it, his adam's apple dancing up and down his throat. When he was finished, he tossed the empty cup to her, Minerva almost dropping it several times before getting a grasp on it. "Fill that up and then leave." he said.

Blushing from embarrassment, she walked into his bathroom unit with the pitcher and cup, stopping at the sink for the water. As she filled it up, she looked at herself in the mirror. In the fluorescent lighting she looked as if she were on the verge of tears, and the short brown curls that usually stopped at her chin had frizzed up to the bottoms of her ears. She left as soon as the pitcher was full, not wanting to be reminded of her insecurities any longer. Even after a blood transfusion Kylo Ren still looked like a prince. She sighed. With both hands, she placed the pitcher on his tray and moved it beside his bed.

For a moment, she just stood there, but it was obvious that he was ready for her to go. Remembering the somber things he had said to her on the elevator, she couldn't help but to wonder about him. Staring at him with a worried expression, she mumbled, hesitantly, "Lord Ren?"

Without even glancing up at her, he sighed and rubbed his eyes. "I told you to go." he replied.

After that, she decided not to bring up his slightly suicidal thoughts from earlier. Quickly thinking of something else to talk about, she wrung her hands and asked, "Would you like something for your shoulder? I brought you a tube of Snot Garlic paste to soothe the burning feeling." She reached into her pocket and held it up to him. "Now, it might smell a bit different, but you'll at least be able to move your right arm."

He frowned. " _Snot Garlic paste?_ "

Excited by his interest in the product, she went ahead and moved to his right, moving her chair out of the way. Twisting off the cap, she said, "Yes, sir. It works wonders on burns, though it does have a strange consistency." She held the tube tightly in her little hand and smiled hopefully. "I would be more than willing to spread some on for you."

Ren looked at her with such intense disdain, but thought that maybe if he went through with it he would get her off of his back. There wasn't anything worse than a smiling little cherub faced girl to come around and ruin his day. Just looking at her made him so confused. What could she possibly be smiling for? Didn't she understand who he was? _I flung that droid around like a rag-doll,_ he thought to himself, as if he had missed a step somewhere along the line. _Why isn't she running away?_

He cleared his throat and gave her a look. "Do it, then." he mumbled, breaking eye contact.

Minerva gave him a bright smile as a warm pink glow spread over her cheeks. Perhaps, he preferred her to the droid. What a flattering idea. She pulled up her thin metal chair and instructed him to, "Sit up, please. I'll get your back first to get that out of the way." Excitedly almost, she squeezed some of the yellow paste into the palm of her hand and grinned.

Ren did as she said, leaning forward slowly, the feeling of his skin stretching making his eyes water. Staring at the wall, the sudden appearance of the paste on his shoulder made him visibly relax. Somehow it was strangely cooling, and despite the prevalent stench of garlic, it felt remarkable. Her small hands made quick circles over the lightsaber wound, reaching every crevice of the uneven burn. She turned around and got another handful of the stuff, telling him that he could lay down. As he laid back against the flat pillow, she placed a hand on his arm as she worked the paste down it, her thumb in the crack of his elbow.

As she massaged him, he looked at her face. She was focused, and a few of her brown curls had fallen into her eyes. "What's your name?" he asked, curious about the woman who seemed so determined to keep him alive.

Caught by surprise from the question, she blinked a few times before she replied, "Minerva. Minerva Caulder." She smiled at him sweetly, like she did all of her patients, and stuck her hand in his. Squeezing it, she added, "It's an honor to serve you, sir."

Before he could react she had stood back up, leaning over him to reach the burn on his chest. With her directly on top of him, he couldn't help but look at the buttons on her shirt, which had spread open just enough to see the curvature of her breast. He didn't look away. Noticing where his gaze was directed, Minerva hurried with the bit on his chest, backing off of him and turning away to put the lid back on the tube.

Just as she was about to say something, a familiar voice came over the intercom. "Minerva." it said, sounding rather sad.

"Y-yes?" she replied, looking up at the ceiling. "What is it Dr. Bhali?"

"Please, come to the operating lobby. The baby girl is dead. She didn't make it."

Minerva froze.

"What!? What do you mean?" she shouted. "I put her in the bacta tank just as you said!"

He hesitated before he bluntly said, "Well, it didn't work. I found her with the boils a few minutes ago and just decided that it was best to put her to sleep before they spread to the face."

She covered her mouth to muffle a scream. Picturing the poor baby going through the same process as her mother caused her mind to practically split in half with grief. Wracked with sadness and disbelief, she immediately burst into tears. " _I'm... I'm coming!_ " she sobbed, grabbing her things and wiping the remaining garlic paste onto her dress furiously. " _Damn it! Damn it, Dr. Bhali, damn it! No!"_

Dr. Bhali didn't respond, and instead turned off the intercom. Kylo Ren watched her attentively, but mumbled too late, "I'm sorry."

She had already run away.

* * *

 **Hey everybody! So, what did you think of this chapter? Please let me know by writing a review! I love to hear back from my readers so that I can know what I'm doing right, what I'm doing wrong, and what you think of the story so far! Thank you so much for stopping by to read my little tale, and thank you 10,000 times for following and favoriting it! That's so cool of you! Thanks again for everything! Expect another chapter soon! Love ya!**

 **\- Molly**


	3. Hour 6

**HOUR 6**

 **6 KNOWN INFECTED**

The power shifted in the command center, causing each and every individual screen to turn off, then on, again. It was the second outage in the past hour, and though the backup generator always seemed to pick up without a hitch, the 88,000 men and women of the _Finalizer_ couldn't help but wonder how much longer it would last. 7 officers and 33 personnel had manned the command center day and night since the explosion, including the perpetually calculating General Hux. The crewmembers looked at their general expectantly, as they had always done. Despite the fact that even _he_ didn't know what was happening to his ship, he was doing his best to act like he did. The thin man examined the schematics of the battlecruiser with a serious gaze, not once wasting his time by blinking. He was too busy to blink, and now was not the time to display weakness to his crew. Several of them had family or friends on Starkiller, and it was obvious that at this point they were hanging by a metaphorical thread. They all looked like death, and behind every tired, frightened stare was the secret hope that they could just go back to their bunks.

For the past 28 hours, Hux and his men had been trying to send _Finalizer_ into lightspeed, but their hyperdrive was beyond repair. A piece of the base had made it past the ship's shields in the explosion, sending the ventilator out into the ether. Even if the thing had been up and running, it would take days to clear the area of debris. Rocks, twisted pieces of metal, and ships full of dead escapees had surrounded them like dirt over a coffin. It was as if the bodies, which occasionally floated by the viewing windows of the ship, were taunting him.

The loss of Starkiller Base was extremely hard for the young general. Although simulations had prepared him as to what it would be like to lose, he had never had to deal with these feelings in reality. Graduating at the top of his class at the academy and moving straight to the rank of a commanding officer, Hux had never been questioned, even by the Supreme Leader. His loyalty, his ingenuity, and his thirst for power had pleased him to the point of creating the Triumvirate. He had wanted him on his side. But now, for the first time, he questioned himself. Did he do everything he could to preserve the base? The thought of it made him furious, but instead of directing the anger at himself, he inflicted pain on everything and everyone else around him.

Hux put his hands behind his back and hollered for his engineer across the room. "So you're telling me that we're stuck at this speed until we reach the Colony on Bogo Rai?" He stepped out from behind the command desk and marched towards him. "This is unacceptable. I expected more from you, Zhet." Snapping with rage, he added, "I expected more from _all of you!_ "

The extremely nervous and abnormally sweaty chief engineer turned to face him, sticking his hands in the pockets of his grey jumpsuit and pulling out multiple devices. Juggling them around until he found the right one, he replied, "Sir, you have to understand that there are more urgent matters to attend to than the engines." He turned the little black box around and pointed at a set of numbers. "I've been finding traces of extreme radiation levels near the medical and housing branches. If it spreads, even lightspeed won't help us escape it. We don't have the facilities on board to manage something like this."

The general glared at him and asked, "What do you mean? Is there a leak in one of the reactors?" Hux looked out the window at the debris still floating from the day before, watching the base over again. "Was something else dislodged after the explosion?"

Zhet put the radiation detector back in one of his dozens of pockets and began wringing his hands. "We're not certain, but one of my engineers stationed in the hangar bay came to the realization that the Kurlish family's shuttle should have been _glowing_ it was so radioactive. We used two of the maintenance ships to toss it into space, but we're afraid that the crew working on prying the shuttle out of the crash site might have come into contact with it." The short, stocky man ran a greasy hand through his hair. "Now, I have my suspicions, so I wanted to ask... Lady Kurlish, her son, the pilots, all of them... are they sick? If they are, sir, I need to know."

General Hux, who was usually stuck in a constant expression of contempt, now stood in front of his chief engineer with an extremely worried look on his face. His ice colored eyes shifted to a woman working radar, who in turn glanced up at him anxiously. For some reason, he didn't know why, a wave of fear washed over his normally mechanical thoughts. Hux knew that he was good at predicting things, and thousands of hours of simulations had prepared him for practically every situation, but now, as he stood so obviously unsure, he didn't know what to do.

"Of course they're sick," he eventually spat, studying the floor furiously. Suddenly, as the revelation popped into his head, he looked up at Zhet and explained, "Inessa Kurlish was Adrian Kurlish's wife- the man who lead the Thermal Oscillator build. I'm sure the family came from the Colony to celebrate his success."

"If they were anywhere near the oscillator when it was destroyed who knows what level of radiation they were exposed to." commented Zhet, eyes wide as he tried to imagine it. "It's a miracle that they made it out in time. A damn miracle."

Hux clenched his pale fist and shook it at the engineer. "It's no miracle that they're _here_ contaminating my ship! Blast them into space before it spreads!" He turned on his heel and approached the command desk. "Round them up and send them down the chute!"

* * *

Minerva held the boy's hand in her own, the green insulated gloves of the hazmat suit offering protection. The room was dark but for a small light over the doorway, and the silence was almost deafening. _This was no place for a child,_ thought Minerva as she tried to comfort him. _This is no place for anyone._

She picked up the end of the boy's I.V. and showed it to him. "Do you see this little needle, Oscar?" she asked. "It's going to sting just the tiniest bit, but it's going to help you feel much better. Can you be a brave boy for me, sweetie?"

Oscar, who was now too tired to care, shook his head in understanding, dragging his cheek up and down the pillow. When she stuck him with it, he winced a bit, but without a single solitary tear. Minerva put away the rubbing alcohol and the other set of needles and put them back in a case by his bed. "That wasn't so bad, was it?" she asked.

With his weak little voice he replied, "It felt like a bee sting." He looked down at his wrist at where it was and frowned. "Will the stinger come out like bees do?"

Minerva sat there and watched him through her helmet. She didn't know what to say, for two reasons. For one thing, Minerva had never seen a bee in her life. She had never been off of a Colony ship, and had never even had the opportunity to get stung. Secondly, she was so sad for the little boy that she was having trouble focusing. He had just lost his mother, but she would never, ever tell him. She couldn't do it, and secretly, horribly, she wished that if he was going to die, he would do it before she had to. Feeling tears returning to her eyes, she wrapped her gloved hand more tightly around his.

"I wouldn't know, Oscar," she whispered, biting her lip. "I've never seen a bee before." She looked away and wished that she could wipe away her tears, the helmet preventing her from doing so. Trying to focus on something else, she asked, "What are they like?"

The boy looked up at her and mumbled, "They're yellow and black... and they buzz around when they fly at you." Exhausted, Oscar closed his eyes. "...They're not scary though, they just act like they are..."

His poor body was covered in blisters, but they didn't seem to be so bad as what had happened to his mother. Tiny circular blisters dotted his left arm and chest, but these weren't the blood red kind that Minerva had seen earlier, but dark black marks instead. The boy looked as if he had lain on top of a grill, as a scale-like pattern had developed in more serious places.

Minerva held onto his hand until he fell asleep, then she packed up and left. Typing in the elaborate sanitation code into the door, a wall of metal slid into place, separating her from the boy. As the chamber was cleaned and recleaned, Minerva noticed a group of people standing in the operating lobby. From the black uniforms, she could tell that they were officers. The door opened, and she immediately took off her helmet. She didn't recognize any of them, but they all stared at her as she walked in. They seemed horrified.

"Is that one of their rooms?" asked the one who looked like the leader. With a nervous tone in his voice, he looked at Dr. Bhali and shouted, "This isn't up to protocol!"

The doctor rubbed his eyes and sighed. "Of course it isn't up to protocol. How else am I to care for these patients in facilities like these? I'm only trying to do my job!"

The officer pointed at Dr. Bhali rather accusingly and asked, "Are you trying to get us all killed? Get them off of the ship immediately! Within days our backup systems could fail, causing this to leak into every facet of _Finalizer_ in a matter of hours! Dump them! Dump them before it's too late!"

Increasingly nervous for the boy, Minerva stepped forward. Still in her hazmat suit, Minerva begged, "Please, sir, there is a child amongst them, just six years old! Please, spare him! He's done nothing wrong!" Making use of the officer's pause, she informed them that, "The boy's name is Oscar Kurlish! He's only six! Please, just let us try and-"

"Enough!" shouted the man, obviously disturbed. A silence followed that slowly melted down the tension in the room. Taking a moment to think, he asked, "Is this true, Bhali? Adrian's son made it on board?"

Dr. Bhali nodded his head. "That's him," he replied, pointing to the door Minerva had just come out of. "The mother and baby have passed. I've already gotten rid of the bodies. However, the son and three pilots remain, though they are affected by the radiation. I'm trying out different techniques. I've never seen anything like this before."

The officer stood there, completely unsure of what to do. Morally, he couldn't bare to sentence a child to death, but with the lives of over 80,000 people on the line, he knew he had to do something. "You can keep the boy," he mumbled, proceeding with caution. "But if he hasn't shown any signs of improvement in 24 hours, I want him gone."

Surprised at the man's leniency, the doctor said, "Thank you, sir, but what about-"

"The pilots can go." he answered, frowning. "I want them extracted by 0900 this morning. Is this understood, Dr. Bhali?"

Without even a retort, he nodded his head. "...Yes, sir."

* * *

 **HOUR 7**

 **6 KNOWN INFECTED**

Kylo Ren looked at himself in the mirror and practically growled at what he saw. He knew for a fact that dumb brute of a Wookiee Chewbacca's bowcaster could blow a hole in someone the size of a melon, so why was it that he was looking at a sutured and miraculously healed wound? The angry scar on his face matched how he felt about the whole thing, and eventually his eyebrows burrowed into his forehead at the thought of the stupid girl who'd done it to him. What would his master think of this weakness? This desperate grasp for relief that was not his own? He needed the pain, _craved_ the pain that gave him power, but now that well of opportunity had dried up. He made a fist and smashed it against the sink, furious.

His face stinging, he turned on the faucet and splashed some water on his face, the droplets dripping off of his chin and onto the white porcelain counter-top. When it touched the scar that stretched all the way from his jaw to his forehead, he gripped the sink, that part being the only bit the girl didn't smear with paste. She'd run off as soon as she heard the news about the baby, and the look on her face was still on Kylo Ren's mind. She had fallen apart on him so quickly that he had actually offered her his sympathies. He hadn't even thought about it when the words came out of his mouth. It was automatic.

Perhaps it was the combination of the bouncing, childish curls and the big brown eyes that did it for him. He'd always had a soft spot for brown eyed girls with long lashes, but this one was something else entirely. The girl's face was so expressive; over the top, even. She probably was a horrible liar, and secrets would be hard to keep. She just gave everything away without even saying a word. When she started talking to him she wouldn't stop smiling and smiling and _smiling_. It was like she was happy to see him, as if they'd been friends for years. But when the news about that baby hit, it was as if the air had been taken right out of her lungs. Those brown eyes were wide with so many emotions at once. Fear, regret, sorrow. It was so devastatingly sad, it even moved Kylo Ren.

Annoyed with himself, he grabbed the pole he was attached to and began walking back to his bed, his clear I.V. bag swinging as he went. Before he sat back down again, he decided to have a look out the window at the debris that kept floating by. Massive, the window stretched all the way from floor to ceiling, making it appear that if he took another step, he might fall into the abyss of space. There were several ships outside, some in pieces, others flawless. In one of the more put together shuttles, Ren could see the pilots floating in the cockpit, light from a nearby sun illuminating them just enough to catch a glimpse at their bodies.

A little bell sound went off by the door, and not soon after the little nurse returned. She looked much different from earlier; older somehow from the grey half-circles under her eyes. However, when she saw him standing by the window, a look of alarm changed them once again. Shaking her hands flittingly, she stuttered, "Sir, si-sit down! You just had a t-t-transfusion!"

She approached him hurriedly, but he stuck out a hand to keep her at bay. "Can't you ever just spit it out? Your stuttering is pitiful." he jibed, turning to face her.

Embarrassed, Minerva put her hands to her mouth as if to shove the sounds back in. She blushed a bit and looked at the floor. "I'm sorry," she replied, slower this time. "I've always had problems with my speech." She brushed a curl behind her ear and looked at her datawatch to hide.

"Is it time for something?" asked Ren, beginning the trek back to the bed. As he walked he added, "Like time for forgetting your orders to leave me the hell alone? Or rubbing a bunch of garlic on me and then running off like a flake? Oh, I know. This time we could braid each other's hair and have a sleepover. I have a feeling that's about the extent of your medical know-how."

Minerva opened her mouth to object, but decided against it. Instead, she took a few steps towards him and said, "I'm sorry. I just... I couldn't just watch you suffer like that." With sad eyes she mumbled, "BO-3 helped to convince me."

The tall man stopped and looked at her again, glaring. "Then it's a good thing I destroyed it." Without warning he suddenly lashed out at her. "Do you know what you've done?" he screamed. "He already thinks I'm weak! You've just proven him right!"

The nurse frowned with concern. "Who thinks you're weak? You're the captain of the Knights of Ren!"

Kylo paused for a moment at her compliment, but was soon swinging again. "My master wanted me to learn and grow from this pain! I could have used it to help with my training. It's the way of the dark side." He shouted at her, "Why couldn't you have just followed orders?"

Minerva shook her head at his twisted way of thinking and decided to shout back. "Because those orders were _cruel_ and _illogical!_ Why would anyone treat someone so horribly? You c-could have died!"

He looked at the ground from how rational her comments were, trying to convince himself that she was wrong. Gripping the titanium pole even tighter, he roared, "Supreme Leader wants what's best for me! He wants me to be strong!"

"If he wanted you strong then he would want you to be healthy!" replied Minerva, maintaining eye contact. "I can't believe that the Supreme Leader would even believe in such a detrimental strategy. If I hadn't placed bacta on the wound you would have been stuck in that bed for a month. It never would have healed properly."

Kylo glared at her. "You have no right to talk about Supreme Leader that way. You don't know anything!"

At those words, Minerva had had enough. After months on this ship of constant criticism by droids, death after violent death, and patient after patient, Minerva had reached her boiling point. In a fit of complete rage, she pointed a finger at him and shouted, "I don't know anything? _I_ don't know _anything?_ I think, sir, that I do know at least _one_ thing."

She loudly proclaimed, "That blaster shot blew a hole in your intestine, and if it weren't for me there to sew you up, you would have died from the shit leaking out of your fucking guts." When she saw the dogged look on his face, she added, "What a noble and educational experience that would be, Lord Ren. He wants what's best for you, indeed."

The once proud Kylo Ren quietly sat down on the bed, staring the nurse down with a regretful look in his eye. _Damn it, she's right,_ he thought to himself, clenching his fists. Now that he'd gotten out the little bit of anger he'd bottled up for her, he came to realize that he had none left. She had taken everything out of him with the truth, swallowing up the last bit of himself that had any faith left in his master. He didn't care about him at all.

Ever since he'd woken up in the medical bay he'd been pondering that statement. After his defeat on Starkiller, the image he had created for himself had been destroyed. He'd told himself lie after lie to get him through the days with his master, and to make himself into the man he had always wanted to be. He had wanted so many things that now seemed out of reach. Had he failed? Or did he even still want them?

Noticing the sad look on his face, Minerva began to feel badly for him. After a few seconds of staring at each other, she decided to make a move. Treading softly towards him, she placed a hand on his good shoulder and whispered, "I'm sorry." When he looked away, she did, too. "I shouldn't have said anything."

"Stop apologizing for nothing," he mumbled. He glanced up at her and said, "I'm the one who should be sorry. I... get angry far too often. I shouldn't doubt the woman who saved my life."

Minerva managed a small grin. "It's natural to be angry. Especially in this place." She took her hand away and shook her head. "Anger is one of the four emotions I ever get to feel anymore. If you take that away there isn't much to work with."

Kylo frowned at her level of relatability. "If anger is the fourth, then what are the other three?" he asked.

She bit her lip and thought for a moment before answering. "Well the third would be confusion... nothing in this place makes sense to me anymore. And second would be fear. I'm always afraid of what will happen next. It's like I've never learned how to conquer it."

When she didn't continue, Ren had to ask, "So what's number one?"

Suddenly unable to answer him without welling up with tears, the emotion poured out of her at the mere thought of its name. Struggling to speak without sobbing, Minerva looked at him and said, " _Sadness. ...I feel it e-every single day._ "

Watching what seemed to be a reflection of himself, Ren sat in silent contemplation, the only sound in the room the gasping breaths of the sobbing girl standing up beside him. She was so broken and emotionally fragile, and looking at her made Ren think of his own self. Although he felt the same way, he had learned over time to suppress what she could not. Somewhere deep down, he began to feel grateful for her presence. He knew that he'd found someone that understands. Without a word, he wrapped his good arm around her waist and held her there until she stopped. The two of them were in complete understanding.

* * *

 **Hey everyone! Sorry for the short chapter, but I wanted to make sure that I got something to you guys within the week. School's been back for a while now and I may or may not have an increased work load, so this might be the new chapter length, but honestly knowing me, who the hell knows. ANYWAY I really hope that you got a kick out of this chapter! PLEASE leave a review and let me know what you think! I love to hear back from you guys! Criticism is welcome and appreciated! Thanks to all of you precious readers out there! Stay tuned for some fr3$h $h!t boiiiii (lol this is just plain shit who am I kidding). Love ya mean it!**

 **\- Molly**


	4. Day 3

**DAY 3**

 **HOUR 20**

 **6 KNOWN INFECTED**

Minerva took the long silver fork and stabbed a meatlump, its grease pouring out of the brown mound of meat and onions like the pus from the dead woman's boils. With her unnecessarily large dosage of valium already beginning to wear off, she was starting to hallucinate with troublesome images, causing the nausea and dizziness to return. As soon as she'd placed the disgusting looking thing on her tray she realized that she'd made a mistake, but once you'd touched a food item, you weren't allowed to put it back. Practically gagging as the cafeteria droid scanned her ration card, Minerva managed to toss the nasty specimen into the garbage not long after. What was left on her plate was a bottle of kelp juice and a tomato, not exactly a fulfilling meal, but even after 42 straight hours of nonstop work, she couldn't bring herself to eat even if she wanted to. When she found a partially empty table to sit down at, she practically collapsed onto the thin metal tabletop, letting her tray clatter as she neglectfully plopped it down. Just as she was about to put her head down in defeat, someone claimed a seat beside her.

Minerva smiled as the familiar blonde deck officer put down her tray, but when she noticed that the woman wasn't smiling back, she decided to frown, too. "Hello, Una," spoke Minerva in a questioning tone, making sure her friend was alright without asking.

Una Veers was the first person Minerva had ever met from outside of her mothership, _Perseverance_. The tall, distinguished looking young woman was from a higher ranking family on _Diligence_ , a newer Colony ship from the end of the Galactic Civil War where generals and their families lived in more spacious cabins and apartments. Although she had always wanted to be an officer, her father, a staunch traditionalist, had wanted to place her either in the medical academy to become a nurse or on a mothership to become a wife. Like many girls before her, Una chose the academy. Minerva sat beside her in lecture, and the two of them quickly became friends. They were both fed up with their place in the world, but unlike Minerva, Una had been able to change her situation. After sneaking onto a cruiser to join basic training, she was immediately recognized as a general's daughter and put into a cushy deck officer position. Minerva had always been jealous of her seemingly light hearted job in comparison to her own, and secretly wished that her father had insisted on leaving her at the academy, giving Minerva another human to depend on in a world full of droids. Una had always been the happy one in their friendship, but it was apparent to Minerva that something had finally gone wrong. Exhaustion was something that she was far too familiar with not to recognize.

"Hi Minnie," replied Una drearily, sitting down in her seat slowly, as if she were sore. She rubbed her eyes while she picked up her spoon, obviously tired and hungry. She began eating right away, scarfing it down almost comically. With a bite of meatlump in her mouth, she asked, "How have you been holding up since Starkiller? It's been... 3 days now, if I'm not mistaken."

Minerva picked up her tomato and began rolling it around in her hands. It was clear that she wasn't the only one feeling the melancholy of the job, but Minerva wished that her friend wanted to talk about something else besides the thing that plagued her. She had so many things she could say, so many things that the average person wouldn't keep to themselves. Between her feelings on the annihilation of an entire star system as well as Starkiller base, the disastrous effects of seemingly supernatural radiation on the body, and her fear for the young boy Oscar, there were plenty of things to talk about. However, if they were never brought up, she wouldn't mind. She didn't want to think about them any longer than her mind already forced her to. "It's been hard," she answered simply, making it as vague as possible. Before her friend could pry, she changed the subject and focused on Una. "How is it on the command deck with Hux?" she asked. "I'm sure he's been quite the precious peach."

Una glanced at her harshly as she hurriedly choked down her food. "The general's doing his best for the Order, Minnie. You shouldn't talk about him like he isn't." she gargled through potatoes. As soon as she swallowed she added, "However, I haven't left the command center since the explosion. I've been sitting down so long I think I could scream." She looked down at herself and her round seat at the table and groaned. Picking up her tray to be able to keep eating, she stood up and began shaking out her legs one at a time. "This is the first hot meal I've had since Zhellday. On Benduday we started mixing up ration powders and drinking them, and by this morning we'd moved on to vitamin paste. My mouth tastes like a copper pipe."

Minerva managed a little laugh as she watched the lean blonde stretch out her legs and stuff herself at the same time. However, as soon as she saw her take another bite of meatlump, she had to look away to keep herself from puking, only seeing the woman. A wave of dizziness passed over her as the vision subsided, causing her to sweat. She could feel herself losing her edge, and reached for the silver pill cartridge in her pocket. When Una noticed that her friend wasn't eating, she asked, "What's the matter? Are you thinking about the base?" She frowned. "I've been thinking about a lot of the academy girls from _Perseverance._ Do you think Kista and Sena made it out ok? I heard _Dreadnaught_ took on a lot of survivors."

Minerva's eyes flashed open as she flipped around to face her, forgetting about her pills for the time being and distracting herself with hope. One of the things that had been weighing so heavily on her mind was the lack of survivors, but with this wonderful news, she could feel herself come back to life. With her heart racing in excitement, she asked, " _Really?_ How many?"

Una paused to think. "Roughly a thousand. Not much, I know, but it's better than these rumors I've been hearing of 5 or 6 people." Confused by her friend's shocked expression, she prodded, "Did you not hear about that? Hux made the announcement a few hours ago."

"No," she answered, remembering that empty hangar. As she began to consider everything about the statement, a tiny bit of doubt crept in. It didn't make sense for _Dreadnaught_ not to ask for aid with their overwhelming number of patients. A normal medical bay could barely handle 100, let alone 1,000. The once triumphant smile left her face and was replaced with a contemplative stare. "I was there with Dr. Bhali when the survivors came in. There _were_ only 6, Una, I saw them with my own eyes. _Dreadnaught's_ medical team called us wondering if we'd found anyone; they were desperate for information. Dr. Bhali told me that we had the only ones that made it, and that they didn't have _any_."

The yellow-haired woman stood up straight and set down her tray, not a single crumb left. Crossing her arms in her crisp black uniform, Una quirked a brow at her friend. "But Hux said that over a thousand made it on board. You probably just haven't heard back from _Dreadnaught_ yet. I'd say that they're incredibly busy."

" _Hmm_ ," agreed Minerva half-heartedly. "Well, it was only six from us if you don't count the general and Kylo Ren. _Stars_ , was he in bad shape..." Her eyes clouded over as she thought of the others. She whispered, "...They all were."

Caught by surprise at the mention of Kylo Ren, Una sat back down beside her with a thud, inches away from her face as she asked, a little too loudly, "You're assigned to Kylo Ren?" As soon as his name left her lips a bitter expression came across her face. Lowering her voice to a concerned whisper, Una gawked, " _How are you still alive?_ "

Minerva blinked. "What do you mean?"

Taken aback by her casual outlook on the ship's resident sociopathic killer, Una whispered harshly, "He kills people, Minnie, all over the galaxy - hell, all over this ship - just for looking at him the wrong way! Didn't you hear about what he did to Lieutenant Mitaka? He choked him until he was unconscious and then destroyed an entire control panel! I watched the whole thing! I hope he never comes back to the command deck again, the beast." Taking a break in her rant to warn her friend, she grabbed a hold of Minerva's arm and squeezed tightly. "Minnie, you _need_ to get out of there before he hurts you. _Has_ he hurt you?"

Minerva shook her head. "N-no, of course not! Una, I've heard all the rumors, and I've seen him in that strange mask but, I've met him. I've talked to him. Surely he wouldn't do something like that to an officer. He doesn't seem like that kind of man." When she realized that Una wasn't buying it, she began to think a bit more. "I mean, he might have a quick temper, but he's been patient with me. I think he prefers me to the droids, and really I think it's-"

"Minnie!" interrupted Una, shaking her friend. "A bit of flattery doesn't mean anything! He's a brutal, terrifying man, and if you know what's good for you you'll assign BO-3 to watch him. I don't care how much you hate that droid; let _it_ get destroyed instead of _you_."

She swallowed at the thought. "Well, um... a-about that..." Minerva looked at the tomato in her hands and watched as her friend's face slowly rose to the same reddish hue. "Come to think of it, he did actually, um, throw BO-3 against the ceiling... So..."

Una's eyes flashed open wide with shock as she spat, "Minerva!"

Trying to defend herself, Minerva stuttered, "I-I-I-I know, but I swear, I don't think he would hurt me! He knows that I saved his life." As she began to explain, she let go of her cartridge of pills and set them on the table to free up her hands. "He just needs someone to calm him down."

As soon as Una saw the little silver cylinder of Valium, she shut her eyes and sighed, obviously upset with her. Una took her hand away and crossed her arms again. "Look," she started pointedly. "I know you're taking too many of those pills. If you'd just lay off, I think you'll finally have a clear fucking head for once in your life. Damn it, Minnie, wake up! I'm sick of seeing you like this."

Embarrassed about her problem, Minerva slumped, as if she were crumbling into herself. She felt defeated, and despite the fact that she knew that her friend was right, she felt as though the pills were the only things getting her through the day anymore. She grabbed the cylinder and shoved it back in her pocket ashamedly, refusing to look at Una. "You know I need them," she whispered, as if a louder voice would have brought on a slap. She tried to defend herself by adding, "I'm so afraid without them, Una. They help me to stay calm. I'm collected with them."

"You're braindead with them," hollered Una, grabbing the attention of practically everyone in the room. As her commanding officers looked on, she continued, "You're not Minerva anymore! You're just some ghost, Minnie! You're sick!"

Not wanting to listen to the rest of it, Minerva stood up, abandoning her tray. Trying not to cry, she mumbled, "You don't understand!"

Just as she was about to walk away, Una grabbed her by her shirt sleeve. "Don't walk away from me!"

A quick slap broke her grip, and a furious glare silenced her, causing a few men close by to stand at the ready, as if Minerva were a wild animal who needed to return to her cage. With all eyes on her, Minerva pointed a trembling finger at Una, and with every fiber of her being screamed, " _You don't know what I've seen!_ " Pausing to take in a forceful breath, the entire room was silent but for her violent breathing. No one dared move. Before she left, she spoke in a low, gravelly voice, " _None of you know._ "

In the corner of the room, a security droid added the incident to her record.

* * *

Another power surge woke up Kylo Ren, who for the first time in over a decade had caught himself napping. As he sat up straight in his bed and looked around, he noticed that this time the lights were flickering much, much longer than usual. A tiny sense of dread began in the pit of his stomach as he stared at the circular light above him, anticipating system failure. However, after a painfully long 10 or 12 seconds, the power corrected itself once again. He let out a sigh and ran a long, dragging hand through his hair, grabbing a handful at the nape of his neck and holding on to it. For a moment he just sat there, his mind once again drifting.

As he stared at the white tile floors, the sense of dull confusion that had clung to him when he first regained consciousness returned to him. Ever since he had been returned to his ship, he had felt increasingly out of place. It was as if his fight with the scavenger girl had taken something from him, something that, now that it was lost, he didn't really miss. The inconsistent and violent anger he had once felt day and night upon _Finalizer_ was gone, and now, as he sat there in the calmness of the room, he really couldn't remember what he had been so angry at in the first place.

Before, his emotions were at the forefront of his mind at every waking moment of every day. His master had taught him to draw his power from them, to feel the Force through his insatiable appetite for power, his devastating anger, and his overwhelming sense of abandonment. His mother and father were constantly referred to as the enemy by his master, as if by trying to protect the galaxy and coping with their own life choices they had essentially given up their one and only son for dead. Deep down Kylo Ren had known this wasn't true, but after years spent with the dubiously persuasive Snoke, he had come to side with him, to devastating results.

He had killed his own father, the man who had raised him, and the man his mother loved. By murdering his father he had destroyed his family, however broken it might have been. The image of the familiar collected smuggler being mourned with the screams of the girl, the traitor, and the Wookiee was ever present, and the more he thought about that horribly brief moment, the more he wished that the little nurse had just let him die. However, one thing kept telling him to drop the idea of self-pity. It was his dignity. His common decency. After all of these years with the Order, it seemed as though he still possessed some after all.

During his fight with Rey he had tried to ignore how loudly the Light was scolding him, but now that he sat in a scarred pile of his former self, he slowly began to realize just how thankful he should be for that sandy waif of a girl. Through defeat, his eyes were opened. He never should have fought against the Light, just as his uncle had told him, and after his depraved journey through the darkness, he had lost not only his father, but any chance of returning to normal life. As he sat there, staring blankly, he decided that he had found himself after all. All his life he had wondered what kind of a man he was going to be, and thanks to the girl, he had found the answer. Thanks to her there would be no more searching. In a turn of depressed serenity, the answer came to him. He would be a failure.

He would be a disgrace to his family and friends, a monster, and a failure in the eyes of the galaxy as well as his own. He had failed to rule the galaxy. He had failed to master the Dark Side of the Force. He had failed to become as powerful as his grandfather. He had failed to be a success, and now, there was nowhere else to go. No one wanted him, not even the devil. His master had never wanted him for anything but power. Kylo Ren remembered how his father had said that to him just before he was foolish enough not to pick his side. He'd killed him for that. He'd killed him for a falsehood, and now, he was here. Here in the bowels of a broken ship, the command of which was barely human.

He looked at his broken toe as he wiggled it around, thinking about the little incidents that created the imperfection. As Kylo Ren, he had always wanted to cover up things like his broken toe and his nasally voice and his big nose, as if it were a sign of weakness to be human. A sign of weakness to be flawed. With the cold air of the room on his naked skin, he felt a strange sensation, as if, with this realization, he had suddenly just been born. He had woken up from his dream, the nightmare that had killed his old self. Was he even Kylo Ren anymore? What was he? Where was he going? What was he going to do? All of these were questions he asked himself, and for the first time in a long time, he was perfectly, effortlessly _calm_.

Any stress that he had originally felt had dissipated, and now he found that there might be things to do.

Ren decided that it was time to get up. Going through the limited list of things that could be done within the confines of his small white room, he decided that he wanted to shower more than anything, and headed towards the bathroom unit by the bed. When he remembered that he was still attached to an I.V., he frowned and yanked the needle out of his wrist recklessly, the sound of the tape and the tube peeling off of his skin a pleasant one. Whistling, he rolled his sore wrist around and let the needle fall to the floor, finally free of his glorified hat rack. He stretched his arm and his back, letting out a groan at how wonderful it felt to move.

He stepped into the shower and let the deliciously warm water wash over him, and after a few minutes of scrubbing, he heard the little bell go off by his door. His nurse had returned; he could feel the stormcloud of emotions she carried with her overhead. For some reason, he didn't know why, he smiled at the thought of her. It had been a while since the last time he had feelings for someone, and now it was hard for him to discern what exactly they were. Did he want to marry her? Did he want to date her? Did he want to be her friend? Or did he just want to fuck her? He shook his head at the impoliteness of his thoughts and was secretly glad that she didn't possess any similar mind reading talents.

"I brought you some clean sheets," she shouted to him through the door. Her voice sounded strained, as if she'd been crying or screaming. "I'll go ahead and make your bed for you."

He didn't respond.

Minerva stepped around the length of the bed and pulled the dirty sheets off of the mattress and onto the floor, piling them up by her feet. As she did this, the glint of something outside Kylo Ren's window caught her attention. Her dark brown eyes stung a faint pink from her tears, and as she gazed on blankly, the pale light of space painted her with a strange glow. As if someone else were controlling her, she walked forward with unwavering sluggishness, the pull of the debris outside hypnotic. Her eyes shifted wildly through the hunks of scrap metal floating by, each one causing her to wonder just how many people were still inside them.

"One thousand," she whispered, remembering what Una had told her. With her valium wearing off completely, she could feel herself slipping in and out of her own head, the fear and the pain and the sadness creating a living dead girl standing at the window, her eyes unfeeling like a doll's. Like a zombie she stood there, waiting, anticipating something to come. "What is it?" she whispered to no one. "What is it?"

The shining ship, upon closer examination, turned out to be yet another partially destroyed shuttle. Silence came over the room as Minerva focused in on the ship, her breathing rough and steady. With every puff of her nose, the frigid glass beneath it fogged up, eclipsing the shuttle in her own nervous steam. She backed away, gripping the folded linen tightly, her body tensing up.

Out of nowhere, as if it were still alive, a frozen, white body floated up at a blood-chillingly slow speed into the window. It's eyes had crystallized into a permanent, empty stare, and the uniform of what had once been a man had been covered in a white frost, like dust on a tomb. It floated there accusingly, the eyes looking directly at Minerva as if she were prey. Chills ran down the girl's spine as her eyes opened wide to look at the horrible thing, never once looking away. She was terrified of it, the body stuck floating on a hook by the window like a taunt. The man looked as though he were still alive. Either that, or possessed by the cold.

The ship that was protecting Minerva from the touch of the dead man let out an eerie, animalistic grown. Suddenly, the lights began to flicker again, but she didn't bother to look. As soon as the power went off, it finally became too much. When the lights failed to come back on, and the darkness of the room enveloped her in the glow of the floating corpse, Minerva let out a bloodcurdling scream.

Sensing the incredible shift in the girl's emotional state, Kylo Ren wrapped a robe around his wet form and ran out of the bathroom, stopping at the door as soon as he saw her. The sight of the dead man and the screaming girl visibly shook him, but he was soon able to gather himself. He looked at Minerva and the reflection of her terrified face in the window. "Get away from there, Minerva!" he shouted. "Don't look at him!"

The girl didn't, or couldn't listen, her body in a permanent trance of fear. She kept whispering something to herself, but she wouldn't move. Kylo Ren stuck out his scarred arm and reached out to her from across the room, using the Force to latch on to her and pull her away. Just as she started to float, Una's words of warning entered her mind, and soon her already beating heart began to race uncontrollably. Dropping the sheets to the ground, she screamed, "Don't hurt me! Please, don't hurt me! Put me down! Please! Please!"

Kicking and screaming, Kylo Ren pulled the girl into his arms and held her tightly against him, turning her head away from the window by forcing her to the dampness of his chest. After several years of victims, begging had never resonated with him quite like hers. For the first time he could feel the fear radiating off of her like a sickness, and soon a regretful frown had spread across his face. As the nurse thrashed against him, he looked at the body still floating outside. Using the Force once more, he pushed the damned thing away. As the corpse floated off into the void of space, he shut his eyes, glad to be rid of it.

"Minerva," he spoke, stroking her hair. "Minerva, it's gone. I pushed it away." She continued her muffled crying into his chest, her mouth permanently open as she tried to rid herself of the horrible image. Kylo Ren wrapped his other arm around her and pressed his thumb to her cheek, wiping away the boiling hot tears that wouldn't stop coming. Drops of water fell from his wet hair and onto the top of her head, causing her to look up. "Minerva, it's alright. It's gone."

As if waking up from a horrible dream, Minerva looked around until she finally locked onto the window once more, the only thing providing light to the powerless room. When she saw that it was truly gone, Kylo Ren could feel her chest push out against him as she let out a sigh, closing her eyes from exhaustion. Collapsing with relief, Kylo hurried to support her as her legs gave out from under her. Through shaky breaths, Minerva managed to whisper, "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, Lord Ren."

"Stop saying that," he replied, examining her face with worry. "Your friend is right about me. You had a right to be scared."

Without even flinching from him reading her mind, Minerva grabbed a handful of his bathrobe and steadied herself. "No, she's not," she mumbled. "You're a good man, I kno-know you are... You care... about me." Opening her eyes again, she stared into him. "No one on th-this shi-p... cares about anyone... anymore... No one has a h-heart..."

Kylo Ren frowned at her. "I know how you feel about me and the rest of your patients. You wear your heart on your sleeve. If anyone on this ship has a heart, Minerva, it would be you."

At that, she gave him the saddest smile he had ever seen. "And look what it's gotten... me."

"Don't say that," he grumbled, staring at her intensely in the darkness of the room. "You're good. You're a good person."

"I don't want to b-be a good person anymore," she whispered, silver tears falling down her cheek and into the curves of her mouth. "It hurts... too much."

" _Minerva_ ," he whined, holding onto her with a deathgrip. He looked at her the way someone would a precious jewel, and slowly he could feel her giving up. Somehow, it was as if she was dying. Her breathing slowed, her body cooled, and an endless sleep was creeping in. The precious flame of Light that he had originally seen in her started to flicker. He began to panic as the familiar longing for death overtook her thoughts, every detail he could sense just from a look. "Minerva! Hey! Minerva!" he shouted, shaking the girl. She had passed out.

In a fit of passion, Kylo Ren tilted her head back and kissed her, holding on to her Light for as long as he could.

* * *

 **Hey guys! So what did you think of that? Three cheers for frozen space corpses, am I right? Anyway, here's hoping you enjoyed it. PLEASE leave a review telling me what you think, what I did right, or what I did wrong! I love to hear back from you! You all are so great, and with every review and piece of feedback that I get I feel more and more encouraged to continue. Oh! And shout out to 0ForeverAChild0 for coming up with a list of ship names for Kylo and Minerva in the reviews! How cool. (I like Minlo and Kynerva lol) Anyway, thanks for stopping by!**

 **\- Molly**


	5. Day 4

**DAY 4**

 **HOUR 36**

 **14 KNOWN INFECTED**

 **1 MISSING**

When Minerva opened her eyes again, she found herself in her cabin, lying on top of her bed with her sleeping clothes on. Wearing nothing but her sweat stained standard issue tank top and matching grey underwear, she was quick to react to the coldness of the room. She sat up, holding onto her aching head as if it was about to fall off, the palms of her hands flat against her forehead like a brace. Minerva struggled to make sense of it all, looking around her room as if she'd never seen it before. _Was it all a dream?_ She asked herself, her brain struggling to grasp what had happened to her. _Did I hallucinate that whole thing?_

The dull ache that traveled in time with her uneven and jolting heartbeat pounded its way from her head all the way through her joints, making it painful even to open and close her hands or bend her knees. The feeling was familiar though. It was what happened when she took too much Valium and then cut herself off from the supply in some sort of desperate attempt to quit. It never worked. She'd never been able to make it through the pain that sat on top of her already suffocating anxiety and pushed down on it even harder. It made her irritable and scared, making it difficult to work and to keep up the appearance of the happy young nurse that she was supposed to be. The fear of disappointing others was one of her many reasons for crawling right back into the pill bottle. She didn't want anyone to see her at her worst.

Checking to see if she was missing any pieces, she looked at her body and noticed how strangely _wet_ she was. It wasn't sweat, but something else, something sticky all the way from the slime on her feet to the lumps that were stuck in her hair. She cringed as she pulled some of it away from behind her ear, but when she realized that it was bacta she was coated in, she knew for a fact that she hadn't been dreaming. She'd been completely submerged in a bacta tank, but why? The last thing she remembered was Kylo Ren holding her back from the dead man's body, but she knew she had passed out. She'd felt it coming on when he grabbed her. But was that really a reason to have been dunked like this?

Minerva got up from the bed and looked at the strange outline of her body that was left behind on her sheets. Her room was just as dirty as it usually was, what with her working 48 hour shifts with time enough only to sleep. As her feet touched the dusty floor, she could feel the dirt cling to the stickiness of her feet. She turned around, wiped her hands on the clean part of her sheets, and picked up her datapad to check the time. _11:11_ flashed back at her. "What?" she whispered to herself, swiping past the main screen. If she remembered right, that would mean that she had been down for the count for over 16 hours, passing out shortly after dinner at 1900. Minerva felt a shiver of uncertainty shoot down her spine as she spied a note on her table below, a sacred piece to this strange puzzle. Abandoning the datapad, she picked up the thin slip of paper with her greasy fingers and started to read. The barely legible doctor's scrawl immediately alerted her to whom had written it. _Dr. Bhali_ was at the heading.

"20:34

 _Put you through a detox session after you passed out in front of your patient. I'm sorry, Caulder, but this is the last strike on your record. I heard about your little hissy fit in the cafeteria, too. I've already contacted your father, and he agrees with your retirement from the med team. Please contact him once you're up, he wants to see you. You didn't tell me that you'd ended communication with him. If I'd known about you I never would have prescribed you something. I should have just sent you home to begin with. Don't bother checking out, your I.D. is no longer valid. A civilian uniform is in your trunk. Best of luck to you on Perseverance. Please do not return to the medical center."_

Furious, Minerva slammed the piece of paper onto the table and picked up her datapad, typing in her crewmember I.D. code and waiting to see if he had really excommunicated her. A bright red warning screen flashed at her after a few attempts, and she dropped back onto her bed defeatedly. "Damn it!" she shouted, holding back frustrated tears. She shook her head, reminding herself that it wasn't worth crying over. She held up the datapad again and put in her citizen's code, a familiar string of numbers she had been assigned at birth. Her home screen popped up, as well as a plethora of memos from her father. She frowned at the sight of his name in the corners of her notifications, each part of it coming at her like a sledgehammer. Simeon. Maxim. Caulder.

She hadn't spoken to her father for over 6 months, not that either one of them cared. He didn't exactly protest her absence either, and when she had left home over a year ago, he didn't even say goodbye. Her mother had died a few years after Minerva was born, and she knew deep down that her father had always blamed her for her premature death. However, her mother had always been a frail woman, and if it weren't for the Population Laws, she never would have been forced to have children in the first place. Minerva wasn't her only child, but she was her last. Her older twin brother and sister Thessaly and Harnam were her first, and ever since the day they were born, they were loved unconditionally, passionately, and at times, ridiculously. Minerva had always been the scapegoat of the family; marked as a troublemaker and blamed for her mother's death.

Minerva was only 4 years old when her mother Esté passed away, but she had always kept the beautiful image of her alive in her mind. When she was a little girl, Minerva had believed that all of the horrible things her older siblings had said about her were true. Now that she had experienced the heartbreaks that life in the Order presented, she understood that they simply missed their mother, and behaved as most children would who thought that death was unfair. Her grandmother Rabé had helped her to understand that as well.

Rabé Tapalo was a competent and intelligent noblewoman from Naboo; a niece of King Bon Tapalo and a selected handmaiden to the legendary Queen Amidala. She had possessed the elegantly dark and dignified features of the Naboo, a sharp mind, and a brave soul, but when she became an Imperial citizen after her marriage to Minerva's grandfather, she was looked down upon as if she weren't even human. Minerva had never understood this, and always saw her grandmother as a seemingly mystical being to be cherished and listened to, not made fun of and ignored. Minerva was the only member of the family who would speak to her for longer than a "hello, how are you", and felt as though the bond she had with her was stronger than any other. She remembered how she used to fix her curly hair just like she did Padmé Amidala's, and how she would tell her stories about life at court. When she would return to her cabin, her father would make her take her hair down or unbraid it, claiming that the Naboo tradition cheapened her. When her father denied her the yearly academy holiday to the inhabited planets in the Unknown Regions, her grandmother would tell her about the planet on which she had lived for so long and with such vivid detail that Minerva felt that she had been there herself, only adding to her fascination about life off of a ship.

When her grandmother was eventually taken away to be abandoned at an elder's facility, Minerva was devastated. She never saw her again, and was told shortly before her graduation from the academy that she had died. Upon hearing the news, she had burst into tears, but her father and siblings seemed almost happy. It meant that the social stain that had been on the Caulder family for the past 40 years had been removed, and as soon as her name was deleted from the citizen's record, Minerva's brother Harnam was promoted to Lieutenant, and Thessaly was married to a wealthy general. Crushed, Minerva braided her hair and cut it off, placing it in a box with some photos; her version of an old Naboo tradition of mourning. Once she had cut her hair for her grandmother, Minerva became a different person; sad and conflicted.

Minerva could never forgive her family for their cruelty, but she knew that she needed to speak with them. However, she couldn't bring herself to do it now. She desperately needed a shower, and more than anything she wanted to know if the little boy, Oscar, had made it through his 24 hours. She decided that before she would do anything else, and before she left this ship, she would at least make an effort to say goodbye to him. As she sat on her bed thinking of what needed to be done, she reminded herself of what she had heard about the 1,000 survivors. The idea of it felt wrong, and when she compared the number to the amount of escape ships that were still floating outside, she knew that something was suspicious. She was good enough at lying to herself to recognize it in others, and when she had heard about Hux and this horrible lie he was spinning, she couldn't help but feel betrayed. She wanted to know that she was right about him, and without a second thought, she knew just what to do to prove it.

She picked up her datapad and hit the transmitter button, typing in the signal code for _Dreadnaught's_ Chief of Surgery _and_ her uncle, Dr. Renley. Dr. Bhali was always poking fun at him for one reason or another, but Minerva had always had a soft spot for the man, as bizarre as he may be. A screen popped up, telling her that the system was processing her request, but soon enough a familiar face was looking back at her. The extremely heavyset man was breathing through his mouth when he answered, as if he had run very quickly to answer the call. "Yes? Any word on the- ...Oh! Minerva, it's you!" he bellowed, his deep voice echoing through the speakers. His eyes suddenly went into a squint as he looked at his caller more closely. "Chobb's knob! I say, my dear, you're looking quite dreadful. Are you trying to pass a kidney stone?"

Minerva managed a thin smile for her mother's brother and replied, "It seems as though I've found myself in a nasty situation, uncle. I've gone and gotten myself fired, if you can believe it. It's a possibility that my withdrawals from a large dose of valium caused me to pass out in front of a patient. Very unprofessional, I know." She ran a hand through her slimey hair and added, "They threw me into a bacta tank and then flat on my ass without a job. I don't even have my I.D. anymore."

Her uncle opened his mouth in shock, but quickly took a long drag from his cigar to keep himself from making any rude faces. "Um, well, that's not very nice, dear. That's not nice at all." he commented, making rings with the smoke, remaining calm. "Now, I'm just going to say it, Minerva. I thought you were a lot of things, but honestly _drug addict_ wasn't one of them. ...What does your prick of a father have to say about all this?"

"I stopped talking to him months ago, and truthfully I'd rather keep it that way." she answered, wrapping her arms around herself. "Look, I'd rather not talk about this now. I called to ask a question. There's something I want to know."

"And what's that, dear?" asked the mountain of a man, just as he took another puff of his cigar.

Minerva narrowed her eyes as she asked, "The survivors. Are there really a thousand on your ship? General Hux has been telling everyone on _Finalizer_ that you've found a treasure trove."

Dr. Renley looked incredibly angry. " _What?_ No! We don't have anybody in here! We've been calling _Finalizer_ for the past three days to try and relieve you, but they keep feeding us this line about how there's too much debris to navigate a medical transport. Poppycock! We've got nothing to do out here. Aren't you overflowing? Admiral Morastus has been talking about it on the Daily Transmission. 1,000 here, 2,000 there! Come on, I'm aching to scrub in on some half-dead trooper!" Suddenly he shook his head, his fat cheeks making it all the more dramatic. "It's that damn Bhali and his hubris. All that man talks about is-"

"Uncle," interrupted Minerva, her heart racing as her suspicions were confirmed. "They're lying to us. Why would they lie about something like this? They're all dead! None of them made it but that poor family! Damn it, why would the Order be covering this up?"

Not following, he reeled in his anger with a cough and asked, "Lying to us how, dear?"

Minerva explained, "We only have 6 patients on the whole bleeding ship, yet they're telling everyone that there's over a thousand on _Dreadnaught_! Now you're saying that there's _two_ thousand over _here_? This is ridiculous! We just have the family! Hux knows damn well that they're the only ones. He's just covering his ass!"

The fat man held out his hands to slow her down. "Now, hang on just a moment. You shouldn't be making these assumptions, dear. If you think you're in trouble now, just wait until they listen to this transmission." He paused to take another drag from his cigar, but his interest was peaked. Carrying on without listening to his own advice, he asked, "There's a family?"

Minerva dug into her temples with her thumbs and shut her eyes, trying not to get too worked up about any of it. Freezing cold, she turned around to grab the blanket from her bed and wrapped herself in it like a cocoon. As soon as her shoulders were covered she cleared her throat and answered, "Lady Inessa Kurlish and her six year old son, Oscar. Three pilots from the ship made it on board as well, but Hux had them all euthanized and sent into space to prevent the radiation from their bodies from affecting anyone else. Everyone aboard was covered in boils within hours after the explosion, even the baby that Inessa was carrying. She was about 8 and a half months along I think. I delivered her by cesarean the mother was so covered with them, but not soon after the little girl developed the blisters as well." Minerva gave her uncle a sad look and mumbled, "Perhaps it would have been better if she were never born at all. I shouldn't have listened to Dr. Bhali. No one knows how to treat this thing."

Dr. Renley quirked a concerned brow at what she had just said. "So you don't even have _them_ anymore? They're all dead?" He put on his smudged reading glasses and picked up an old fashioned binder from beside him, flipping through pages and looking through old cases as the smoke from his cigar floated around him like a mist. As he searched for definitions and articles, he grumbled, "Damn, that sounds familiar. The boils sprang up a few hours after the explosion, you say?"

"Yes, and within about 3 hours they'd overtaken the mother, Inessa, to the point where I actually requested that Dr. Bhali put her to sleep. All of her hair had fallen out and her face was completely covered by the boils. She was in such intense agony, and the smell of her was as if she were already dead and rotting." Minerva put a hand over her mouth as she recounted the stench. "The only one still able to fight the radiation is Oscar, the boy, but that's only because I begged Hux's lieutenants to spare him. They gave him 24 hours to improve, but now that I've lost my I.D. I won't know if he's made it or not. All the others are dead."

The fat man paused on an article. "Were the boils dry?"

Minerva blinked. "No, they were overflowing with pus."

He immediately flipped to another page, obviously onto something. "Would you describe the smell as sweet? And if not, was it similar to burnt flesh or hair?"

"It was sweet like a corpse is sweet. Like I said, it was like I was looking at a bloated corpse." Minerva leaned into her datapad and asked, "Do you actually think you know what this is?"

Dr. Renley furiously began typing something into his command console, and without looking up he stated, "There were talks of a bio-weapon being created a few years back that combined the cancerous effects of radiation with symptoms similar to Dathomirian Plague. With help from the radiation the victim's white blood cell count would drop to the point of almost instant infection, creating a perfect host for the virus. From what you're describing it seems as if someone is still trying to make those talks a reality. I managed to shut down the study before it went into production with help from Admiral Morastus." Suddenly he stopped and pointed at her. "And unless you want your head lobbed off, I suggest you keep that to yourself, dear."

"But-"

"I'm going to look into this. I'll get back to you as soon as I can, and just maybe you can help that boy. I'll try and make a diagnosis." Pushing his ancient glasses back up his nose, he told her, "Don't leave your cabin. If I hear that you went back to the medical bay I'll call your father."

 _Click._

Before Minerva had anytime to react, her uncle had ended the call. She rubbed her eyes and sighed, unsure of how to process the possibility of someone creating a morally bankrupt bio-weapon onboard her ship. Fury rose up inside her as she thought of how cruel they must have been to test their horrible weapon on a child and a pregnant woman. Who could it have been? She grabbed a hold of her blanket and put it to her mouth to muffle a scream that never came. The room was intensely quiet. Her brown eyes stared blankly at the wall as she contemplated her options.

After a few minutes of sitting, she stood up and dropped the blanket to the ground, making her way to the shower. She looked over to the door of her room and whispered, "Then you're just going to have to call my father."

She was going to see the boy.

* * *

 **HOUR 37**

 **14 KNOWN INFECTED**

 **1 MISSING**

Kylo Ren flipped the kyber crystal over in his bare hand, frowning at how cold it was to the touch. He knew that the kyber wasn't drawn to him, but he was expected to use it anyway. He didn't want to bleed it like he had the broken one used in his previous lightsaber, as it took several days and extreme mental effort to turn. He had felt the little bit of sentience the broken kyber had possessed when he bled it, and when it finally gave into the dark side, he could have sworn he had heard a scream somewhere in the back of his mind. Looking at this one, he knew he would have to do the same thing, transforming the uncooperative crystal into a useable weapon.

The Knights of Ren had sent it and several others in an express transport to _Finalizer_ , finding them in an ice cave on Ilum. The message that came with the package described the journey that brought them there, as well as how difficult it was to pry the kyber from the ice and rock. Unable to use the Force, the Knights had knocked the shards out of a larger piece with a pickaxe, creating jagged shapes like the one Kylo Ren was holding in his hand. The men had no way of knowing how badly he needed them. They had been sent to the planet a few weeks prior, before their captain had lost his lightsaber in a duel with a teenaged girl, and before he'd been scarred with defeat. Kylo shut his eyes at the thought. She not only left a permanent symbol of her victory on his face, but also destroyed the weapon that had taken him months of study and dozens of prototypes to build.

He wasn't even sure he could do it again it was so tricky. He'd gone off of a hundred year old parts detail that had been stolen from the abandoned husk of the Jedi Temple on Coruscant, and it wasn't even for a model that was used in the Galactic Civil War. Someone had simply noticed that it was for a lightsaber and decided to salvage it. It had ended up for sale on the black market on Zygerria, and as soon as his connections had heard about the piece, Kylo Ren went down himself to retrieve it. Even an old Zygerrian trader who knew the piece's worth didn't risk bargaining with him. It seems that you can get a lot of things for free once you've threatened someone's life.

Looking at the kyber crystal, Kylo leaned back in his chair and opened the large metal box on the table beside him, counting all of the parts in his toolkit over and over again. Everything was there for another lightsaber to be made; all he had to do was change the crystal. He ran his thumb over the frigid thing and sighed. Did he really want to do it?

Without any interaction, a kyber crystal was naturally attuned to the Light. The only way Kylo could have gotten a bigger hint about which side was the right one was if the crystal could yell it at him. It was only until a dark side user came along that it took on the reddish hue that he had become so familiar with. To the Sith, it had been their symbol of power as well as a testament to the rage that had fueled them, but now, to Kylo Ren, it seemed meaningless. Why mess with something that was already perfect? He wondered if the Sith and other dark side users had just ignored the fact that they had to forcibly change it in order for the Force to cooperate. It was obviously wrong. As he sat there with the little jagged shard, he tossed it to the side and whispered, " _Damn it_."

Suddenly, the door to his cabin slid open, and quickly he stood up to see who had been so bold as to stumble in. Walking towards the middle of the room, he stopped in his tracks when he saw that it was General Hux. Before the redheaded man could speak, Kylo spat, "Out! Get out!"

Hux curled up his lip into a vain sort of smirk. Coming down the stairs and into the living area, he spoke, "Calm down, Ren." He stopped when he was a few feet away from him and began taking off his gloves. "The rerouting system is out upstairs, so I decided to deliver this message myself to be..." he paused to think about the word as if it were foreign to him, hissing, "... _nice_."

Kylo examined him closely as the thin man helped himself to a seat. With an expression of pure disgust on his face, he growled, "Well, then spit it out. The last thing I would ever want is a house call from you, general." He pointed to the angular black chair he was sat in and commented, "I'll have to hose that down when you leave."

Hux pursed his lips. Tightening his grip on his gloves, he began twisting them around subconsciously as he corrected himself with, "Actually, there's two things I'd like to discuss with you, if I may." He straightened up in his chair and looked around the room at the mess his comrade lived in. Thrown off by the amount of broken objects in the floor and the number of dents and scratches on the wall, Hux swallowed nervously. "The Supreme Leader wants you to contact him as soon as possible, or whenever we have our transmission system back in order, that is. He tells me that he's concerned for you, Ren. That you've been misbehaving."

The shadowy man at the other end of the room flashed him a hateful look. The Supreme Leader had been watching him all this time, it seemed. Kylo pinched his nose as he thought of how much worse training would be with Snoke already displeased with him. First there was the defeat on Starkiller, and now this exasperating pickiness about his person. What had he done wrong this time? Saving that annoying question for later, Kylo grumbled, "The second thing?"

A red brow quirked itself up as the general asked, "You've surely heard about the radioactive buggers in the medical bay?" He crossed his legs and looked at the ground, obviously uncomfortable with the idea. "Well, I need your help regarding... should we say... clean up?"

Kylo narrowed his eyes. "What are you scheming, general?"

Obviously on-edge, Hux looked at him and said, "They're already starting to catch on. We overheard a transmission with the doctor on _Dreadnaught,_ and it's obvious that the human nurse on board knows we're lying about numbers. The crew is suspicious about the amount of ships outside as well." He wrung his black gloves in his hands and complained, "They don't understand! I couldn't let them in! Not with the others being coated in radiation!"

"Which numbers are you lying about?" asked Kylo, taking a step closer. "The number of survivors?"

"Yes," muttered Hux, taking a step back. Wary of the man he was asking for help, Hux tried to remain smooth. "To... keep up morale, I decided to... add to them."

Backing Hux right back up the stairs, Kylo furiously asked him, "What did you tell them? What did you tell the crew?"

"I told them and the officers that there were 1,000 survivors on _Dreadnaught_ , and Admiral Morastus told his crew that there were 1,000 on _Finalizer_ so as not to seem suspicious." spoke Hux, who was starting to sweat. Trying to remain brave, he attempted to pass the blame onto someone else. "I've sent a group of stormtroopers to nurse Caulder's cabin. So far she's the only one who knows, and frankly I'd like to keep it that way before she terrifies everyone. She's already a drug addict and a mental case; it's not like I don't have enough evidence to put her away. With her indisposed and those patients blown off of the ship, we should be able to hold together until maintenance has our engines up to par."

Before Kylo could respond, Hux said, "What I'm asking you to do is to work your magic on her once she's in custody, and then go to _Dreadnaught_ to manage her uncle." He gave the intimidating wall of muscle in front of him as serious a look as he could muster and added, "We've just lost Starkiller. We don't need them to lose any more faith in our Order."

Seeing through his act but too tired of First Order antics to say anything, Kylo simply shook his head and backed away, walking towards the living area. With his back towards him, he said, "Do what you will, general. This is your affair." Kylo paused and glanced back at him. "But know that I won't help you."

Frustrated that his plan wasn't working out, Hux glared at his comrade. "But I-"

"Don't think I don't know what you did with those shuttles, Hux," interrupted Kylo dramatically, revealing to the man that he wasn't as delirious as he might have seemed. "When your men dragged me off of the base I saw you give the ok to stall their engines. And why shouldn't you? Every single person on those shuttles were commanding officers, evacuated before anyone else. One of their bodies even floated into my window in med bay. You wanted them out of the way. Given your character, it's understandable."

Hux froze. Unaware that he already knew so much, he stood there speechless. Without saying yes or no on the matter, Hux began with a, "I don't know what you mean."

"You don't know?" laughed Ren, in disbelief at how big of a weasel he really was. Eyes aglow with the brief thought of killing him, Kylo decided that he would settle for a few cutting words. "You're a lying rat. Never ask anything of me again, or else I'll add your ashes to my collection." He pointed to the pedestal where the half-melted mask of his grandfather's was resting on a bed of the stuff. "Now get out. I don't want to soil my carpet with the blood of a coward."

Without another word, Hux turned and left, just as suddenly as he came. Slightly broken from where he had dented it once, the door to his cabin slid open with a screech. Never once looking back, the general was gone, petrified and full of hate. The door shut back with another screech, leaving Kylo Ren to his once again silent, dark, and brooding chambers.

After a few moments of quiet, Kylo chuckled at it all. At the so-called people-loving government that he had worked for and believed in for so long, at the horrible men in charge of it, and the poor, naive people at the bottom. He simply stood there for a time to take it all in, shaking his head at the rotting stench of fraudulent and cruel power. On the wall opposite from him was a sliver of a shattered mirror, and in it he could see his face and the horrible scar that burned across it. As soon as it came into sight, he quit laughing. In need of a drink, Kylo made for a bottle of scotch that was resting on an end table.

Without any ice, he poured it into a dirty glass and took a shot of it, leveling out his nerves. When that glass was empty he poured himself another one and sat down on the long, out-of-place and stylish couch that stretched the length of the living area. The cabin that he had lived in for the past 5 years was designed for a high ranking officer, and was in fact the exact same room that General Hux, Admiral Morastus, and others lived in on while on duty. Made for entertaining and comfortable living, the cabin even had an attached guest room and a fully stocked bar. Being the man that he was, Kylo Ren had never felt at home there, and slowly, over the years, had managed to break, dent, or scrape every object in the place. That is, every object except for the couch. Surrounded by ruined style, Kylo laughed again.

Just as he finished his second glass, he looked at the chair that Hux had been sitting in. A shiny object caught his eye, and he soon stood up to get a better look at it. He picked up the little silver rectangle and turned it over in his right hand, the left still holding onto his drink. It was a datastick, and a marked, top-secret one at that. Smiling at the thought of potentially ruining Hux's day, Kylo sat down his drink and began searching for his coffee table. The coffee table doubled as a command console and entertainment center, but when he was angry he just used it to break other objects. He found it in the corner, leaning against the wall, missing one of its legs.

He picked up the coffee table and put it back in front of the couch, immediately sticking the datastick into it. After a few seconds of the poor battered thing trying to turn itself on, a blue screen glitched onto the wall. Kylo read what it said out loud, " _Silver Level I.D. Required._ " Smirking, Kylo typed in his I.D. and mumbled, "Coming right up."

As soon as his identification code was authorized, a slew of notifications and memos popped onto the screen, causing Kylo to blink at how surprisingly untidy the general kept his private files. He immediately began reading, sifting through memos until he found something good. Thinking that it was just some sort of gossip between comrades at first, he nearly overlooked it, but as he continued to read, he realized that something much more important was going down.

Hux was planning to overthrow the Supreme Leader. Kylo didn't even have to guess. All of the information was right in front of him. Kylo shook his head at how unusually careless Hux had been with the material, but seeing as how nervous the devil was, he could understand how he might have been distracted. Kylo continued reading, and realized that there were even contacts listed on the datastick that had been killed in the explosion. The men who had written these memos were all floating outside in the debris, betrayed and rather conveniently dead.

Everything made sense. With all of those officers out of the way on Starkiller, Hux would have no opposition left on the Colony. It would be like half of the military had never even existed, and now there were only naive old generals, women, and children left to make a decision on leadership. It was all quite contemptible. Suddenly, Kylo's mind turned to Minerva. Minerva was the only person on this ship that felt like the Order was corrupt, and she was about to be put in a cell. For some reason, he wasn't sure why, he felt like he could use her help. It was as if he had found a part of himself in the girl, just as he had with Rey. But this time, the Light was showing him something else entirely. He identified with Minerva, and because of it, he knew that he needed her there with him. Something was going on. Something bad was about to happen. He could feel it as the Force worked through him, alerting him to the danger ahead.

Pulling out the datastick and putting it in the pocket of his black trousers, Kylo ran out of the room, searching for Minerva. Although his purpose was still unclear, he atleast had a newfound drive, and this time, he wouldn't have to figure this thing out alone.

* * *

 **HOUR 38**

 **14 KNOWN INFECTED**

 **1 MISSING**

Strutting down the corridors of the medical center, her bare feet were starting to freeze from the cold metal floor. Minerva was on a mission for answers, but she knew she had to be reasonable about it. Walking into the patient area, she immediately began looking for a friendly face. She knew it was only a matter of time before security was called, and she hadn't gone deaf, either. An announcement had been made for her to report back to her cabin, and it didn't take much to figure out what they wanted from her. Her heart was racing from her nerves, and it seemed to her as if time wasn't on her side. It was as if she could see the hands on the clock speed up just to spite her. To be quick about things, she hadn't even bothered to dry her hair after her shower.

She looked a bit unhinged, what with her dripping wet curls and her odd choice of clothes. Because Minerva was only allowed to wear heels with her uniform and even her citizen's uniform, they were her only option for footwear. Annoyed, she decided to simply go without, walking around barefoot outside of her cabin for the first time in her entire life. She had heard her grandmother talk about not wearing shoes during summer on Naboo, but it was frowned upon on in the Colony. Minerva felt almost naked, but good. She hadn't bothered to entirely change into the skin tight black number that they had sent her either, and so was walking around in her old tank top without a brazier and the uniform's pencil skirt. Sure she was brave enough not to wear shoes, but she wasn't bold enough to go walking around in her underwear.

Several of the young stormtroopers turned their heads to look at the familiar nurse, but wouldn't call out to her like before, most likely thrown off by her appearance. No one bothered to say hello, as if Minerva was a stranger or some sort of villain. However, when she caught the attention of Captain Chambra, the man with the cybernetic leg, she knew she felt welcome.

Hurriedly, she went over to him, but before she could speak, he'd grabbed her and pulled out the curtain that hung around his bed for privacy. In a nervous whisper, he asked, "Caulder, have you gone mad? Don't you know they're looking for you?"

Minerva frowned. "Of course I do," she replied. She took her hand and brushed her wet hair out of her eyes. "I had to come back and see if one of my patients is-"

"The boy?" interrupted Chambra, his distinguished voice making it sound even more dramatic.

Eyes wide and questioning, Minerva nodded her head. "Yes, sir. How do you know about him?"

Staring off blankly, Chambra seemed bothered by the question. Suddenly he tightened his grip on her arm and answered, "I saw him in the ceiling, crawling out of the air duct." He pointed upwards. Leaning in, the older man asked almost dementedly, "What the hell happened to him? Why did he look like that?"

All of the sound seemed to drain out of the room as more and more of the men overheard them. A few of them gathered around the two, and one man was even so bold as to draw back the curtain to look her in the eye. Each one of them were uneasy, and it gave Minerva chills. They looked as if they'd seen a ghost, or their buddy get their legs blown off all over again. Glancing over the restless men, she asked, "What do you mean you saw him in the _air duct_? Sir, Oscar is a dying boy. It isn't possible for him to-"

"I saw it, too." spat one boy.

"Yeah, same here." said another.

Soon, everyone was nodding in agreement. Chambra spoke up, "The thing looked like it couldn't have been larger than a small child, and although it was covered in black scales..." he paused, obviously disturbed, "it looked human."

Minerva began to feel afraid, but continued to ask questions. "W-well where is he now?" she stuttered, her nerves getting the better of her once again. "Surely Dr. Bhali has him back in q-quar-quarantine?"

A boy took a step forward through the crowd and crossed his arms. "I don't see how he could," he said, pointing to a spot behind Minerva. "Those men tried to get the kid under control a few hours ago, now they're just sitting out here stinking up the place with those damn pimples."

She flipped around to see who he was pointing at and gasped as she counted the newly infected patients. Eight men, all left out in the open without even a hazmat suit, were lying in beds at the other end of the medical center, each one groaning or vomiting from the pain of the radioactive boils that were slowly claiming their bodies. Terrified that they had been left out to infect everyone else, Minerva shouted, "You all need to leave! We have to get out of here!"

"Those men are drenched in radiation," she screamed. "We all need to leave immediately!" All of the men, who were already on edge, did as the little woman said, going to grab their things before they ran out of the medical center. In the mad dash to the door however, Minerva failed to notice the stormtroopers standing there waiting for her. As the men all ran by their uniformed comrades, Minerva did the same, until one of them grabbed her arm through the tide.

She looked up to a see a white mask, and proceeded to let out a scream. No one stopped to help her though, and soon she was left alone with her captors. Although she knew that it was foolish to resist, she kicked and screamed anyway, until finally one of the men tazed her into unconsciousness.

* * *

 **HOUR 38**

 **14 KNOWN INFECTED**

 **1 MISSING**

Minerva woke up again a few minutes later while being dragged into a cell. She was too dizzy to react quick enough to the closing door, a see-through sheet of plastic a few inches thick. When it sealed shut it made a hissing noise as if it were an airlock, and the lights turned on in the cell when it realized that it had an occupant. She managed to stand up and lean against it, looking around the brig and examining everyone and everything that was in it. There were 7 or 8 stormtroopers that were stationed there with a deck officer sat in the middle, messing with something on a control panel. There were holes cut into the door, allowing her to hear what the men were saying.

Although most of the troopers were carrying on as ordered, one of them seemed to have a problem with something. "That's just Minerva," she heard him say to the officer. "She's a nurse upstairs. She wouldn't hurt a fly!"

When her name was mentioned, another trooper spoke up. "Hey, that _is_ her!" Holding onto his blaster, he approached Minerva in her cell. "What are you doing here, ma'am?"

Just as she opened her mouth to speak, the deck officer hollered, "Don't talk to her, boy. She's been put down for treason. Get back to your post already, your task is completed."

Following orders, the stormtrooper saluted him and immediately walked off and out of Minerva's view. It wasn't too long however, until she had more company. The other young man that had recognized her walked up to her cell, taking off his helmet as he did so. Minerva smiled at his familiar face and said, "It's you!"

"You remember me?" he asked, honored to have stood out to her. He frowned. "Minerva, why are you down here? I don't think you have a treasonous bone in your body."

Despite the deck officer's protests for him to be quiet and to put his helmet back on, Minerva answered him. "They've been lying to us about the survival numbers-"

"Enough!" shouted the man.

"- Only 6 people made it out of Starkiller alive-"

"Shut up!"

"- They told us there were thousands!"

"Be qui-"

Out of nowhere, the deck officer began to choke. Minerva and the young man watched as he grabbed at his throat, as if there were an invisible force there suffocating him. His face turned a frightening shade of red, and his eyes looked as if they were about to pop out of his skull. Suddenly, his head slammed into the control panel, resulting in sparks flying and blood streaming down his forehead. Within seconds, the man had blacked out.

Frozen with fear, Minerva's eyes floated up to see Kylo Ren standing at the entrance of the brig. That same muscular arm was stuck out in the dead man's direction, his gloved hand commanding an invisible, yet terrifying, power. When the young man laid eyes on Jedi Killer, he slowly put his helmet back on and walked away, leaving his commander to his business and perhaps sparing his life. Minerva leaned into the door, her breathing heavy, pushing her chest against it in nervous rising and falling actions. With her thin fingers hooked into the air holes in the door, Minerva stared at the man she considered a friend with a smile of relief.

When he saw her, he went to her immediately, using his strange powers on the door she was locked behind. "You're coming with me, Minerva," he told her, never once breaking eye contact.

Letting out a shaky breath, the girl asked, "You came for me?" Searching his face, she shook her head at the sense of caring she found there. "Why?"

Without missing a beat, he replied, "You were right about the people on this ship." He paused as the door slid open. He promptly grabbed her arm and pulled her out, dragging her behind him as he hurriedly left the brig. "Hux is planning to overthrow the Supreme Leader. He's already started the process, too. All of those people floating out there in the debris were commanding officers, just like him. Now the only difference between them is that they're all dead and he's not. Convenient, isn't it?"

As the two walked in stride to the elevator down the hall, Minerva's jaw hit the floor. Tears threatening to resurface, she quickly pinched her nose and tried to change her emotion from sadness to anger. "You mean," she asked with an unsteady tone, "Hux had those people killed?"

The duo passed a trio of troopers, making Kylo drag her a little bit harder in the direction of the elevator. Sensing her displeasure with the situation, he replied, "He ordered maintenance to cut their engines and air flow mid flight. The fact that your patients even made it as far as they did is amazing." When they reached the elevator, he made sure that it would be waiting for them, pushing the button with his mind a few feet back. He pushed the girl into the elevator and closed the door, getting them moving at a paranormal speed.

When it started the climb up, he noticed that she was looking at him rather expectantly. He was still gripping her arm, and maybe a little too tightly at that. With an awkward sort of grin, he let her go, and the two of them stood side by side, looking at the floor numbers instead of each other. For what seemed like ages, the two remained quiet, until finally Minerva broke the silence. "W-well where are we going now, sir?"

Distracted, Kylo looked at her for a moment before answering, "My cabin. Yours is probably being searched as we speak." A foot and a few inches higher than the little nurse, Kylo looked down on her. As he examined her chocolate brown eyes and small, thin mouth, he blinked with confusion. What was this feeling that had come from deep down? It was familiar somehow, as if it might have happened once or twice before with other girls. Had he forgotten the name? He looked away before she could catch on and mumbled, "Damn, I thought I'd fixed the stuttering for you."

Minerva quirked a brow. " _What?_ "

When the girl blacked out back in the medical bay, Kylo had tried to straighten things out mentally for her, blocking out what seemed most damaging to her and boosting her self-esteem. Remembering that not all people understood mind control, he decided to save that explanation for another time. Luckily for him, the elevator doors opened up just in time. He grabbed her arm again and said, "We're here."

Taking just a few steps out into the hall, the two arrived at the door of his cabin, a dented, broken thing that didn't appear to work. Minerva quirked another brow at the condition of it, and stifled a laugh as he finally managed to open it. Suddenly, after a brief minute of running, they were inside the cold, black room that Kylo Ren called home. As the door shut behind them, the room became even darker, but soon a lamp in the corner of the room and another one that rested on an end table became illuminated, putting the disheveled place on display. Taken aback by how broken everything was and how everything seemed to be covered in a thin layer of dirt, Minerva whispered sarcastically, "Stylish."

Once they were in the dungeon-like living room of the cabin, time slowed back down for Minerva, and despite the extremely messy and psychotic array of the space, she felt much more relaxed. It was as if the room were a hiding spot that no one knew existed, and as for the man inside it, it was obvious that he prefered it that way. A half empty bottle of scotch was settled into the arm of the couch, an entire bookcase had been overturned and propped up upside down, and a lamp was laying in shattered pieces under his coffee table, which was somehow staying upright on three legs. On the ceiling were strange stains and stalactites of some sort of slime, and hanging inside of his chandelier was what appeared to be a knife. Nothing made sense here, but one thing was certain. Kylo Ren got mad, and he got mad a lot.

"I'm sorry," he offered, picking things up and throwing them into various corners of the room to make a clear pathway. After a while, he gave up on his half-hearted cleaning and stood up to look at his guest. When his eyes reached the girl's chest, the sight of her nipples hardening under her shirt caused something within him to stir. Once again, she caught him staring at her breasts, but this time the girl didn't turn away. Trying to save the conversation, Kylo mumbled, "I... don't have company very often."

* * *

 **Hey guys! Sorry for taking 4,000 years to post this. I got a new job recently, so I have a few more things on my plate than usual. So what did you think of this chapter? It was pretty freaking long, wasn't it? If you thought that this was too long, too short, or just enough, let me know! PLEASE leave a review! I love to hear back from my readers, and the more that I hear back the better I feel about my work. You encourage me to write and always offer up great things! Thanks so much to every single one of you! You're great! High five! Way to go! Look at you being you and stuff! So cool! I plan on continuing with my weekly chapter update, but if I can't manage it, I hope you all can understand. Work = Money. Money = Happy Molly. Love ya!**

 **\- Molly**


	6. Hour 39

**HEY! Just so you know, before you start reading and you're like, oh dude I think I'm going to puke, there is a sex scene in this chapter! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED! But hey, you've gotta keep it spicey, right? -Molly**

* * *

 **HOUR 39**

 **14 KNOWN INFECTED**

 **3 MISSING**

"Damn it, kid, hold the flashlight over the bolts!" shouted a sweaty Zhet, his angry, warm exhales of breath fogging up his helmet. He gave it a final tug with his wrench, having a bit of trouble gripping it with his wet rubber gloves. The sound of steam hissing out of the pipe beneath him sent him screaming, "Back up! Back up!"

All three of the men in their orange hazmat suits scrambled out of the way and leaned up against the wall of the reactor room. Their scared eyes gleamed in the glow of the red emergency light above them as they watched the boiling hot steam shoot out of the pipe, creating a sharp squealing sound that echoed throughout the chamber. It was dark, swampish, and unbelievably hot, making it difficult for the men to see out of their helmets, a mixture of sweat and condensation to blame. Droplets of water fell from the ceiling, the abnormally warm temperatures causing the cold metal to perspire. When Zhet noticed that his two engineers weren't going to do anything, he shook his head and tightened his gloves, going back in with his wrench.

When the pressure eased off and the explosion of steam slowed to an erratic burst, Zhet tightened the bolts again, giving up on fixing the area for the time being. They had been down in the bowels of the ship for nearly 24 hours, and it was high time for a break, no matter what the general had ordered. When the squealing was silenced, it left a dull ringing in their ears, but it wasn't enough to distract them from the ominous rumble of the reactor a few stories below. The entire room seemed to vibrate with the humming of the machine. The idea of a nuclear blast the size of a large asteroid was what always kept them on their toes.

"I'm sorry about that, sir," said the youngest of the engineers, aiming his flashlight at his chief's chest. You could see the circular light shake and tremble as the young man struggled to keep his calm, his eyes glued to a spot just over Zhet's shoulder. "I just... I swear I saw something earlier. It threw me off. You know what I mean?"

Zhet panted in his helmet, his breath clouding up his mouth. With a patronizing tone, he replied, "You mean that _sound_ you _heard_? You didn't _see_ anything, Aldrik, you're just tired. We're all tired."

The third man pointed to the door at the opposite end of the room with his puffy gloved finger. "I saw something run by, too, I swear it. Over by the air duct." He turned and flashed Aldrik a troubled look, his worried face illuminated by the yellow lights inside of his helmet. "You have to admit that something seems off. I think we should leave, chief."

"It was probably just a mynock," replied Zhet flatly. He walked towards them and picked up his toolkit, sliding his wrench back inside. "Since the engines haven't been working I'm sure a few have found their way in to chew on the power cables, and there's all of those wrecked ships outside. Talk about a feast."

Aldrik shifted. "You're right, sir," he mumbled, sounding as if he were trying to convince himself of his own words. "I know that older mynocks can be pretty troublesome. That's what I saw, I'm sure. Let's just hope it doesn't swoop down and scare us all to death."

Zhet nodded his head and pointed down the hallway from where they came. It was pitch black but for the bright red exit sign at the very end; practically the size of a pen head from this distance, a tiny beacon. "Come on," motioned Zhet, "Let's go. I'd give my left arm for some dinner."

Without any protest, the two men grabbed their tool packs and followed the chief, running their fingers over the tops of their helmets to turn on their flashlights. As the weak lights shown down the massive length of the hallway, droplets of water flashed their reflections as they splashed down to the metal floor, creating steady dripping sounds, almost as if the condensation were a leaky tap. Their steel toed boots made their footsteps echo down the hall, bouncing against the wall and the low ceiling. They walked in a single-file line, the width of the hallway too thin for them to wander comfortably.

Aldrik looked up at the ceiling, watching the droplets of water fall on the visor of his helmet as they walked, each one leaving a clear streak on the foggy surface. As the water continued to drip, he stared at the black tiles on the ceiling, all of the little squares catching the light from his helmet as he passed. Suddenly, something that wasn't water fell onto his visor. A dark red liquid splattered against it, and Aldrik stopped, confused as to what it was. He touched it with his gloved fingers, smearing it off of his helmet. However, it wasn't long before what he was examining began to fizz on the rubber, creating sizzling bubbles that were eating up his glove like acid. The same was happening to the residue on his mask, as slowly little holes began to form as the liquid melted it away.

He looked up again at the ceiling, but couldn't make out anything amongst the tiles, only a black spot that wouldn't catch his light. When the liquid began burning into his fingertip, he let out a scream as the extreme heat ate through the muscle. Not wanting to look, again he looked up, but this time what he saw wasn't nothing.

Two eyes, white and wide as they stared, looked down at him from the ceiling, surrounded in black shadow, as if they were stolen from someplace else and stuck there to frighten people. The pupils that rested in them were entirely black.

"Zhet! Zhet!" screamed Aldrik, unable to tear his eyes away from the ghastly sight. When more of the red liquid fell onto his helmet, he let out a horrible yell that lasted for as long as he had breath. Desperately he tried to detach his helmet, but it wouldn't budge, sending him into a panic.

The two men ahead of him turned around to look at him, their flashlights allowing them to catch a glimpse of the thing above him. The black-scaled creature clung to the ceiling somehow, as if its entire body were covered in sticky, acidic plates. When it moved each one slapped against the other, creating a sound similar to a man cracking his knuckles, over, and over, and over again. While the other man pushed passed Zhet to get to the exit, Zhet pulled a wrench out of his tool pack and ran towards Aldrik and the creature.

Aldrik fell to the ground screaming as the liquid burned its way into his face, causing his eyes to boil in their sockets with a blood-curdling sizzle. The creature jumped down from the ceiling and stood over him, but before Zhet could hit him, it stuck out a small, twisted hand. Zhet stood there trembling, the wrench held high in the air above him with his weakening arms. He couldn't help but stare at the wretched thing before him, a set of bloody scales in the shape of a small, humanoid figure. When it attempted to open its mouth, Zhet thought he might scream, as scales from the area were visibly forced open, revealing a red, bloody hole without any teeth.

The thing let out a groan as if it were trying to speak, its eyes wide open, as if it would hurt to shut them. Finally, a long, single word erupted from it with a creaking struggle.

" **Maaaa-aa-a-thhh-errrrrrrrrrrr-rrrr"**

* * *

 **HOUR 39**

 **14 KNOWN INFECTED**

 **4 MISSING**

 **1 DEAD**

Minerva hadn't taken her eyes off of the monitor for the better part of an hour as she had sifted and clicked through the hundreds of personal memos between Hux and his henchmen. Kylo Ren sat next to her on the couch, reading just as eagerly as she was the incredible tale of deceit that lay open before them. With each message came a clearer picture of his plan to overthrow the supreme leader, as well as his incredible sense of hubris. Suddenly, after dozens upon dozens of messages, Minerva broke the order when she saw the name KURLISH at the bottom of the screen. With her finger she practically lept from the couch to open it, and as soon as the message was in plain view, she visibly began to tremble. Kylo watched her curiously as the girl slowly covered her mouth, the rectangular white reflection of the monitor aglow in her pupils.

The memo was recent; sent only a single day before the Starkiller explosion. The tone was one of gratitude, not regret or anger. It was from Adrian Kurlish, presumably Inessa's husband and Oscar's father. Adrian was thanking the general for allowing his wife and son to witness the weapon inside Starkiller alongside him, and how it had been an honor crafting the thermal oscillator for the glory of the Order. Minerva felt a chill come over her as she thought of her patients and what had become of them, but now it made sense as to why their bodies had been so quick to respond to the radiation. They were as close as you could possibly get. Hurriedly she closed out the message and laid back against the couch, rubbing her eyes.

"What was that?" asked Kylo Ren, turning off the monitor.

With the memory of the mother's pain at the forefront of her mind, Minerva answered him rather slowly, trying to focus on several things at once. "Adrian Kurlish is... _was_ the husband of the woman whose baby... died." She looked up at him with sad eyes and frowned as she thought of the little thing. "Adrian wanted his family to see how Starkiller functioned thanks to his machine. It wasn't meant to turn out like this, but that's why they're all dead. All because he wanted his family to be proud of him. He didn't know that this would happen."

Kylo looked at the floor, sighing. Thinking of the already nervous and somewhat skittish Minerva getting a front row seat to the grizzliest type of death bothered him. He knew that she had some real problems, and it was obvious that this experience wasn't helping. His time inside of her mind had made that perfectly clear. She was depressed, uneasy, and scared. When he made the connection about the baby, it started to cue him in as to why. After parting his full, pouting lips he managed to ask a question through his contemplation. "You mean the entire family died on this ship? Damn, Minerva, that's horrible."

"The wife, her baby, and-" she stopped, reminding herself of what the men in the medical center had told her. With her eyes full of fear for the unknown depths of his illness, she stared at Kylo and corrected herself. "Actually, no. The wife and baby died, yes, but the son, the boy, _Oscar_ , he's still alive. Somewhere in this ship. They told me they put out an alert for him, did you hear it?"

"Yes, a few hours ago," he replied. With a questioning expression on his face his brows were cast downward over his eyes, his pink scar wrinkling with the movement. "Look, I want you to tell me what you know about what was affecting these patients. If a six year old boy could rip off a vent to an air duct, I want to know what a grown man could do if they were exposed. Does this thing even have a name?"

Minerva swallowed and folded her hands in her lap, trying not to think of their bodies too much. Shutting her eyes as if it would help her to remember, she answered, "My uncle is the chief of surgery on _Dreadnaught_ , and when I told him about their symptoms he seemed to think that it was something left over from weapons talks. They wanted to build a sketchy bio-weapon a few years back using cells from a disease called Dathomirian Plague. I haven't had a chance to look it up myself, but-"

" _What did you say?"_ interrupted Ren, his face gone pale. "Dathomirian Plague?"

"Yes, sir, why?" she asked, leaning in. "You've heard of it?"

Kylo stood up from the couch and walked away, running a hand through his hair worriedly. After a few seconds he turned to face her again, but it was clear that he did not wish to speak. "Dathomir is strong in the dark side. The whole planet is soaked with it, and so it has become a strange wasteland with a blood red sky, controlled by the Nightsisters. They're witches, dating back thousands of years to the fledgling days of the galaxy. Dathomirian Plague was designed by the Nightsisters to kill any other species besides their own, and within a month the entire planet was eradicated, except for their small group. Now only a tiny area is populated, and not even the bravest of souls venture there. There are rumors of unnatural creatures that keep most people away."

Minerva blinked, disturbed by his words. Wrapping her arms around her bare arms, she whispered, "Unnatural creatures?"

Kylo hesitated to say much more so as not to frighten her, but he knew that it was important. If someone was attempting to reenact the Dathomirian Plague, it was high time that they were stopped. "Most people believe that the ones the plague affected were never dead at all, but instead turned into hideous, unrecognizable versions of themselves. People forgot that they were once human because of it, and they lived in constant pain and confusion. Not all of them were violent, but most of them tended to be. Is this ringing any bells?"

"Y-yes, sir, it is, it really is," stuttered Minerva as she recalled the eerie imagery of the little boy covered in jet black scales. From there she turned once again to the disgusting boils that had grown on the mother, and then, like always, she found herself in tears. She covered her mouth and sat perfectly still, her stinging, wet eyes glued to the floor. Tired of crying and feeling a bit embarrassed for exposing herself like this in front of Kylo Ren, she turned her head away as she tried to gather herself. After a while she let in a massive breath and whispered, "I'm sorry."

Kylo understood her insecurity, but he shook his head nonetheless, approaching her and saying, "No, no. Stop apologizing for nothing. It's getting on my nerves." When she didn't respond, he walked away towards the end of the couch and grabbed his half-empty bottle of brandy from earlier. As he poured them both a glass, he added, "And stop calling me sir. The sound of it doesn't suit me anymore."

When he brought the glass of liquor over to her she hesitated to take it, instead looking up at him and saying, "But you-you're a commanding officer. It's disrespectful." She took the glass out of his outstretched hand and watched as he sat down beside her. "You want me to call you by your given name?"

Quickly he replied, "Kylo Ren isn't my given name, but it will have to do." The longer he thought about his old name and the way his father shouted it at him shortly before his death, the more he craved the drink in his hand. He swiftly downed it and poured himself another. As he was doing so, he noticed the curious look on Minerva's face, but before she could ask the big question, he sternly commanded her not to.

Minerva took a sip of her brandy and shut her eyes at the wonderful taste of it. Feeling herself relax a bit, she leaned back against the couch sighed. Everything was quiet in the room, and suddenly the two found themselves silent and alone. Not noticing it before, Minerva found that her thigh was directly against the man's seated next to her, and yet neither of them had bothered to move. He was so close to her in fact, that she could count every freckle and mole on his face, and the tiny black dots in his nose. He was looking at her. Feeling her face flush, she looked away, twisting her glass in her hand.

Sensing the instant tension in the room, Kylo Ren couldn't help but find a strange, craving feeling in his chest. Unsure of her viewpoint in this situation however, he decided not to act on it, and instead muttered, "Would you like a blanket to wrap yourself in?" His light-brown eyes trailed over her breasts again, but he quickly managed to bring them back up to the surface. "You look like you're cold."

Minerva's mouth parted briefly to protest, but then she awkwardly wrapped her arms around her chest, the color in her cheeks practically glowing as she remembered she wasn't wearing a bra. "Um, yes please." Kylo proceeded to stand up from the couch and walk around to an overturned lounge chair in the corner of the room. Draped across one of the arms was a dark grey throw, and Kylo leaned down to grab it. As Minerva watched him move -examined his masculine stride, saw the muscles of his broad back flex and float under his shirt- she found her heart rate growing steadily faster. Watching this man do anything, say anything, wear anything, made her feel better somehow; a harmless fascination with his handsome frame to distract Minerva from what was on her mind. However, she wasn't entirely sure if what she was feeling at the moment would be considered harmless.

Minerva began to worry that Kylo Ren had brought her into his cabin for something other than a pep talk. When she had used his bathroom earlier she'd seen a pair of women's panties hanging out of the waste basket, and ever since she'd entered the space she couldn't shake this feeling of impending... impending _what?_ She wasn't sure. She just knew that whatever it was, it made her face turn the color of a tomato.

Ren walked back over to her with the throw, wiping off some crumbs of something that had worked its way into the fibers. "Here," he said, tossing it to her. As he watched her immediately wrap herself in the coverage of the blanket, he rubbed his neck and stared at the floor. "Look, I'm flattered that you think I'm handsome, but trust me, I didn't bring you here to have my way with you or anything, alright? I just-"

" _What!?_ " squeaked Minerva as her embarrassing thoughts came babbling out of his mouth. Had he been reading her mind? For some reason, she didn't know why, she honestly thought that he had. The idea of it seemed impossible, and yet, she knew that it wasn't. She'd seen what he could do with those strange object-moving powers in the medical bay; it wouldn't be too shocking if he could read minds, too.

Visibly uncomfortable and regretting even saying anything, Kylo quickly began backpedaling with, "Well I just didn't want to see you get hurt or-"

"Uh, no, um, it's fine, I completely understand, thank you," sputtered Minerva, her cheeks as red as blood. She gathered the grey blanket more tightly around herself as a sort of coping mechanism, feeling more than a little bothered by the conversation. Suddenly the memory of their elevator ride sprung into her head. The little comment he'd made about _fixing her stutter_? What the hell was that supposed to mean?

"It meant that I was in your head," spoke Kylo Ren. He stood there with a blank expression, obviously unsure about the whole thing. "And yes, I can read your mind."

At that, Minerva jumped off of the couch and ran up the three little stairs towards the door of his cabin, still wrapped in his blanket like a cocoon. However, she didn't flee, instead stopping and turning around to face him from a larger distance. "W-why were you in my head?" she asked aloud. She felt so violated, and now that she had been completely exposed by this man, felt incredibly angry. When he didn't answer her right away she yelled at him, "I never gave you permission! Y-yo-you c-can't just do something like that!"

"Yesterday in the medical center you came this close to killing yourself," he replied, putting his thumb and pointer finger about an inch apart. "I'd never seen anything like it. It was as if you were willing your body to shut down. I knew that I had to stop you, so I took the notion out of your head, thus stabilizing you. And really, I must say that you seem much more confident and ready to deal with your issues."

Minerva started to cry. "My issues?" she whispered forcefully. "My _issues_? You mean the crippling fear and anxiety that's ruined, perhaps forever, any chance of me working again? The thing that turned me into a drug addict in an attempt to control it? You mean the soul-crushing _hatred_ that I feel towards myself every single day for not even being able to _function_ like a normal human being? _Those_ issues?"

Kylo said nothing.

"I hate this business enough without you st-sticking your nose in it! I wanted to keep these things a secret to people who didn't already know! I've lost enough friends that way!" She cried, feeling the utmost sense of shame. The sensation that she felt everyday -feeling like she stuck out in a bad way, feeling as if she'd let people down- was now amplified. She wanted to curl up inside the blanket and lock herself in the bathroom just to take his horribly kind eyes off of her. However, even then she could picture them heroically drilling a hole through the wall.

As she stood there turning herself into a weak-kneed pile of pissed off mush, she returned to the all-too-familiar pathway in her mind that lead to the definitive answer, but before the infamous, dreaded, yet advisable word could claw its way to the forefront of her brain, she found herself pushing it away of her own will. Kylo Ren was right. Thinking of suicide now made her instinctively cringe just as he had apparently programmed her to do, but instead of taking that as a blessing after a year of struggling with it, she only saw it as a curse. "You didn't make me more confident, sir, you've made me stupid! Now I'm not even clever enough to know that my life is a complete pile! You've given me this false hope that I know will never be realized! Because of you I can't do myself the common courtesy of ending it! The thought of it scares me when it shouldn't! I'm a coward! I'm afraid!"

Kylo Ren shouted, "I saved your life!" Frustrated with her strange reaction, he walked up the stairs towards her and grabbed her arm through the blanket. "Your life is worth seeing through to the end, Minerva. You're a kind, thoughtful woman with more left to accomplish than to live out her life on this vessel. You're better than any other man on board; you deserve a future! You can do more with your life."

"No, I can't!" She insisted, freeing her arm from his grasp. She glared up at him with her dark brown eyes and pushed her wild chocolate colored curls behind her ear exasperatedly, only to have them fall back due to their utilitarian length. Sighing, she explained, "I've lived my entire life inside of a ship, so what's the chance of that ever changing? Now that I don't have a job I'll be sent home to father, but with my mental history he'll probably just ship me off to the same facility as Grandmother now that he finally has an excuse. And I know I'll never marry. Who would want to chain themselves to someone like me for the rest of their lives? I'm not even capable of conceiving children for another three years because of this contract birth-control. I was supposed to serve my four years just like everybody else, but it looks like I can't even make o-one! Don't you see? The life you saved is ru-ruined anyway! I don't have a future in the Order. I'm out of options."

Kylo gave her a puzzled look as he considered where she was coming from. From her point of view, the First Order was the only option when it came to places and societies to live and work with. She wasn't even considering the thousands of other planets and cultures in the galaxy, almost as if they didn't exist. The galaxy was endless, but to Minerva, the First Order was the end of the line.

He took a step closer to her and waited until she dropped the angry face to speak. Once she had calmed down a bit, he said, "Minerva, you can leave. I can get you off of Finalizer and have you on your way somewhere; anywhere you want to go. The Order isn't the only way."

She looked at him sweetly, as if he was joking. "I can't leave, sir, I-"

"Yes, you _can_ ," he insisted, maintaining eye contact. "You can go to any planet in any star system. The galaxy is yours! You can start over somewhere and make a new life for yourself. Anywhere would be better than here."

"The Order's mission is to provide stability in the galaxy! And y-yes, they might be cruel and they might be robotically efficient, but..." she paused, a flash of fear echoing through her voice. "The Resistance... They destroyed Starkiller and killed a hundred thousand people. That means that they're no better than us. We annihilated an entire star system, but they took a page right out of our book. I've heard stories about them, and I've seen what they do to our men. The galaxy is a horrible, barbaric place, and quite frankly I-I-I-I'd rather stick with the devil I know than the o-one I don't."

Kylo Ren shook his head, but before he said anything to retort, he caught himself. The answer was obvious, and he knew which side to take, but never had he known anything to be so clear before. The Light shone through Kylo Ren as he spoke to this girl; a beacon of encouragement and life-giving salvation. What had happened? It was as if he had become an entirely new person, and was quick to judge what had once meant the world to him. Now he saw only darkness in the Order, and felt an unbridled urge to abandon it. It had failed him in more ways than one, and the faith that he had once placed in it was moved elsewhere. Outward, into the distance of space.

He turned and pointed to the large, hexagonal window at the end of the living room, bringing her attention to the black, promising emptiness. "Out there are a thousand other planets for you to explore, each with its own opportunities and freedoms. I've seen them with my own eyes, and I know for a fact that their offer still stands." He looked back over at Minerva and took another step towards her, leaning over her presently. "I give you my word. I've renounced the Order myself. Everything has changed -in myself, in my faith- and I... I've decided to help someone who I would have considered to be a traitor only a week ago. You haven't gone to far; you haven't fallen down the hole. I'll help you."

Minerva stared up at him, examining his honest eyes and letting out a shaky breath. "But I... I don't want to go out there alone." She let her eyes linger over his full lips. "W-will you go with me, s-sir? ...Please?"

Kylo shut his eyes as he let the words unfold in his mind like a proud flag. It posed a question he hadn't given much thought to. Leaving the Order himself hadn't even crossed his mind, considering his mile long list of sins and trespasses he would have to make up for. He didn't see himself having much of a future. Any goal he might have would be dampened by the weight of his past, and his five year rampage of murder and betrayal would always catch up with him in the end. He had killed his own father. There wasn't any going back now. Perhaps he deserved to stay in the cold hell he had carved out for himself and live out his life as the monster he saw in the mirror. There would be no chance for redemption; no chance to return to his old life. Could he make a new one by escaping the Order with Minerva?

The shivering, terrified girl before him was his own creation; a woman brought back from the brink of death and into the bright, unforgiving light of life. It had been done against her will, and for that he added yet another disappointment to his list. Now that she had explained herself and her situation, he felt guilty, understanding her hopeless attitude. He turned his head and looked around at his decrepit pit of a room, weighing his life with the Order and that of Minerva's. In the angry gashes and shattered objects of the space he found nothing that could make him stay, only a mocking sadness that clung to him like a plague. The room was diseased -unclean- but Minerva, oh how she shined with promise for him. When he looked back at her he realized what he had to do.

He remembered seeing his comrades again after returning from the medical bay and how deeply he hated them. He remembered the bad taste that Hux had left in his mouth after he told him to contact his master. It was apparent that he wanted nothing to do with this place.

He grinned at the small, potent woman beneath him. He liked the way her nose was so rounded at the end like a button. He enjoyed the naturally happy shape of her cheeks that disobeyed even her saddest emotion. It was apparent that he wanted everything to do with her.

"I'll give you whatever is left of me," he answered. "I will take you wherever you need to go."

Minerva shivered with delight at the newfound pact she had made with this man. Offering him a bright, hopeful smile, she took her hand out from under the blanket and rubbed her teary eyes in relief. "Oh, thank you," she whispered. "Thank you so much."

She locked eyes with him as a comfortable silence filled the room. Something made her want to drop the blanket in the floor, and so she did, letting it slide off of her shoulders and pull at the straps of her undershirt. With her hands free, she couldn't help but reach out to him. Slowly, with a tremble, she placed her palms flatly against his jaw, pulling him towards her for a kiss with her thumbs stroking his cheekbones. As soon as her lips touched his she let out a sigh at how incredible the sensation was.

He grabbed her quite violently around the waist and pulled her into him, smashing his mouth into hers until his tongue found what it was looking for. He let out a quick sound from his throat as she sucked him in, the desperation she felt for him evident. He moved one hand up her back and into her hair while the other came around and up her ribs onto her breast, fondling it and grazing her nipple with his thumb through her thin undershirt. When he felt the heat grow on her cheeks he could feel himself losing his inhibitions, a desire for this woman emerging before all else.

She pushed him away to unzip her skirt, sliding it off of her hips and stepping out of it. Next came her undershirt, which revealed her pale chest and two pink nipples that immediately captured Ren's attention. He snatched her up again and trailed his kisses down to her breast, taking his tongue and twirling it around her nipple as he suckled, causing her to tighten her grip on a thick lock of his hair. He took his hands and placed them behind her thighs, picking her up and blushing when she instinctively wrapped her legs around him. With his head angled up towards hers, he kissed her passionately as he carried her over to his bed, bumping into a few things along the way. When he finally made it he threw her off of him and onto the bed, beginning to unbuckle his pants. Instead of waiting for him to take of his clothes, Minerva sat up and went for his shirt, pushing it up and exposing his muscular stomach.

When he pulled the shirt off of him Minerva watched as his enormous arms and broad chest moved with the motion, his large hands releasing the shirt and returning to his belt in one foul swoop. Not soon after, his pants were gone, leaving her with a wonderful view of his cock, which was obviously happy to see her as well. The size of it made her let out a small sound, and her craving for him was insatiable. She slipped off her panties and tossed them off of the bed, meeting Kylo Ren halfway as he climbed on top of her, kissing him as he positioned himself. She wrapped her legs around him, inviting him in.

When he entered her, he did it so agonizingly slow that Minerva could feel herself being spread apart by his size, the hardness and girth of him causing her to groan. It wasn't her first time with a man, but she had never been with one so large before. It was as if it were a whole new experience. His weight on top of her made her feel dominated by his masculine presence, making her heart flutter in her chest. As he began thrusting in and out of her, she arched her back, closing her eyes at the wonderful sensation of him. She placed her hands on his muscular back and followed the lengths of his battle scars with her fingers.

He rubbed his cheek against hers as he breathed in the scent of her hair, coming back over her chest and planting strong kisses over her collarbone. Placing an arm by her head to steady himself as he thrusted, he leaned in towards her neck and took a bite, sucking at her skin until it bruised. After she let out another groan, he told her, "You're mine."

Minerva grabbed his face and looked into his eyes, tracing the scarred portion of his cheek. Panting, she whispered, "I'm yours." Shutting her eyes again, she let out another moan as he pounded into her more steadily. You could hear him slap against her bottom with every thrust, each one reaching deeper than the rest. She could feel the friction his thickness was causing inside of her, stirring up uncontrollable breathing and a loss of vision. She dug her nails into his back as he fucked her, making him let out a loud puff from his nose. His pink scar wrinkled as his brows lowered in concentration, never once holding back. He knew what made a woman feel good, but he had never cared about the woman he was fucking until now.

She was tight and warm, and she drove him wild with her little moans. She felt too good to let up on, and so he didn't, making the sex rough in the right way. He wanted to pummel her into the ground, make her unable to walk, break her back, and apparently, that's what she wanted, too. When she moaned, "K-Kylo," he thought he might lose it then and there, but he held it together until he felt her insides tighten around him. As she came she grabbed a hold of his hair and let out a series of euphoric cries, succumbing to him, and as he finally reached his climax a sound erupted from his throat into her ear with release.

A flow of hot cum poured into her, making her shiver and shake with pleasure. She laid there catching her breath until Ren pulled out of her, flopping over onto his side to join her. He was sweaty and tired, and he laid his hands on his chest as he breathed in and out. For a moment she just had to lay there, her mind still trying to connect to her body after that experience. Her bottom half was pounding in time with her heartbeat, and she could feel his cum dripping out of her sloppily. She felt like she belonged to him, and the idea of belonging to a man like this made her feel warm. He was impressive and raw and real -a man- and she loved it. She loved every bit of him he had to offer.

Sensing these feelings inside her, Kylo turned his head to look at her. He was flattered by the idea of her affections. She met his eyes and smiled, knowing that he had read her mind. "You're wonderful," she whispered _._

He smiled with gratitude. A few seconds later, he grabbed her hand and kissed it. As she fell asleep, he watched over her with a protective eye, and during this time he returned to his thoughts, finally able to give a name to this unfamiliar feeling.

Love.

It was love.

* * *

 **Hey guys! I'm so sorry for the super long wait on this chapter. I've been working a ton lately and I got really sick with some kind of bug, so I had to wait a while. I hope you liked the chapter! How about the sex scene, huh? Did that make you as uncomfortable as it did me? Yeehaw! PLEASE comment and let me know your thoughts! What am I doing wrong? What am I doing right? Thanks so much for reading, guys! You encourage me to continue! Love ya!**

 **\- Molly**


	7. Hour 41

**HOUR 41**

 **15 KNOWN INFECTED**

 **4 MISSING**

 **2 DEAD**

Una pressed the play button for the fourth time. General Hux watched the security footage over again, unable to make sense of what he was seeing. Looking for answers, he turned to Captain Phasma and asked, "And your men have retrieved the bodies?"

"Yes, sir," she replied, her voice coming out slightly less confident than before. "I delivered them to Bhali as you requested. However, we've lost track of the culprit. The creature seems to have dissolved the tracking device we tagged it with."

Hux swallowed. The idea of being out of ideas was annoying to him, and it was beginning to wear him down. Nothing in his years of simulations had trained him for a situation like this. Frustrated, he threw his scrawny arms in the air and asked, "Well what should we do, Phasma? We can't risk a crew running into that bloody thing. But it isn't like we have anyone else to send down there _anyway_. Fuck! The other engineers are on _Dreadnaught_ mending that air leak. We need our fucking _engines_ and we need them now! We've been stuck here for nearly five days and conditions are falling apart faster than those buffoons could tape things back together! Now we haven't even got _them_. Bloody fucking brilliant!"

Still on edge about their commander's unusually clueless behavior, the crew members tried their best not to react to the chain of expletives spewing from his nervous mouth. Una was at her station, the fit blonde crossing her legs and folding her hands like a student trying to win teacher's pet. Una looked up at him as if he were some sort of idol, knowing that if she even flinched that she could lose her job. Hux had told three other crew members that when they returned to the Colony that their job would be taken away, and none of them had even committed a code violation. Nothing the red headed tyrant tried was working, but instead of taking the blame, he always seemed to pass it on to someone else. Even Una could see that now. Although she seemed calm and collected on the outside, Una was finally beginning to panic.

A tall, ragged man in a slightly wrinkly captain's uniform stepped forward, his cybernetic leg pronouncing his walk with a thud. Captain Chambra cleared his throat and saluted the general before saying, "Sir, Is it possible to seal off the reactor area until our engines are fixed, or at least until we get the ships out here to limp us home? I've seen what the boy can do when it comes to doors. He bends them in half like soup spoons. If we can't handle him, I suggest we leave him in someplace that can; this instance being," he paused, " _the reactor_."

"Are you mad, Chambra?" asked the general, pushing past him to look at a new set of data on display. As he read over the chart he added, "What if he melts the safety shields off of the damn thing? There wouldn't even be time to evacuate before it blew! It would be Starkiller all over again!" He shook his head and turned back around to face him, raising an accusing finger in his direction. "Remember what I said about morale."

Ignoring the statement, the captain pulled up a diagram on his datawatch displaying the cylindrical reactor that sat 40 stories below. Handing his watch to Una, she plugged it into the port beside her, displaying the hologram for a larger audience. "There's enough metal covering on the thing that we would have at least 6 or 7 days more before he could manage to break through," he said, "that being if the beast is even after it at all. Who knows what he wants? He could just be lost and confused. He is only a boy; we mustn't forget."

Hux glanced over at Phasma before he examined the diagram of the reactor, as if she were the last anchor that was keeping him from drifting away. When he saw the slight nod of her head in agreement with Chambra, he gave the man a second chance. He stood perfectly still for a moment in contemplation. "Fine," he spat, his nervous movements making him look stiff. With his wide, intense eyes locked on the captain's he said, "We'll do it your way. However, if the aid ships arrive before the seven day mark, we're abandoning _Finalizer_ without him. We don't have the time or resources to find a cure for this, and there isn't much of this ship left to salvage, anyway. The beast can have the whole damn thing for all I care. When that reactor explodes even our little scaley friend here will fry."

"But sir," spoke Phasma, slightly shocked. "Oscar Kurlish is a First Order citizen and a son of a proud-"

"-A dead man, Phasma, a dead man," interrupted an irritated Hux. "He's the son of a dead father, a dead mother, and the brother of a dead sister. We can mark him down as the same."

The command center went quiet at their general's harsh comment. Even Phasma visibly looked away, her helmet glinting with movement under the lights. With all eyes on him, Hux put his head down and looked at his boots for a moment before acting as if nothing had happened. Lowering his voice, he pointed to Chambra and ordered, "Take me to the medical bay. I need to have a word with Dr. Bhali about all this."

"I think it would be wise to do so, sir," replied Chambra. Seeming to struggle with the memory of the place, he looked at the ground for a moment before saying, "This is much more than the boy. I've seen first hand how quickly this disease can spread, as well as the... side-effects. You should speak with the nurse stationed there, as well. Nurse Caulder. She was with the boy's mother when-"

"I'm not going to the brig, Captain, I'm going to the medical bay." interrupted Hux yet again, his eyes practically bulging. "That girl's nothing but trouble. She's a traitor if I've ever seen one. I'll stick with Dr. Bhali, thank you very much."

Una's heart skipped a beat at the commander's mad ramblings. Without meaning to, she asked out loud, "the brig?" As soon as she realized what she had done, she began mentally kicking herself.

The look that General Hux gave her made her blood run cold, but before she could apologize for addressing a commanding officer with such a questioning tone, he stared down his nose at her and hissed, " _Yes_."

Captain Chambra furrowed his brow. "Nurse Caulder is a traitor? What has she done to deserve such a moniker?" He took a concerned step forward on the prosthetic leg that the girl herself had repaired for him and asked, "Did you lock her up somewhere, sir?"

Hux turned his head violently in Chambra's direction and asked, "What if I did? Huh?" Before he answered he turned back around to Una, glaring at her and repeating, "What if I did?"

No one dared to say anything, and Una had to look away. The tension in the room could be felt by everyone, and it seemed as if the temperature had increased by 20 degrees. When nobody challenged him, Hux straightened himself up and huffed, shaking his head as he quickly left out the door with his guards. Chambra glanced over at Una, who seemed just as confused as he was. However, that confusion quickly turned to fear for the little nurse below. Regretting ever confronting her friend and wishing that their last meeting could have ended on better terms, Una bit her lip with worry and returned to her work. It wasn't long after that when all of a sudden, her console lit up, sending her an alert on one of the ship's security cameras.

Clicking on it to see what it was, her mouth dropped when she saw what was running down the hallway of the medical wing, as well as the trail of bodies it had left in its path.

* * *

 **HOUR 41**

 **15 KNOWN INFECTED**

 **4 MISSING**

 **9 DEAD**

Minerva's eyes flew open, and quickly she sat up to assess her situation. After a second of thinking, she remembered that she was in Kylo Ren's cabin, the dark, cave-like bedroom a bit strange to wake up to. As her needlessly nervous heartbeat slowed down, she rubbed her eyes aggressively at her horrible ticks. She turned her head and noticed the man himself sitting below her at his desk at the bottom of the stairs, putting something together out of what looked like a pile of scrap metal. He was fully clothed, and his jet black hair hadn't a strand out of place, as if their little encounter had never even happened. Questioning her mental state, she gave it some serious thought. It wouldn't be the first time she had hallucinated while off of her meds. However, Minerva could feel the soreness between her legs that Ren had left behind, and blushing, knew that she hadn't dreamt it. Plus, the cold air in the room reminded her that she was as naked as a newborn babe. She wrapped his sheets around herself tightly.

Minerva glanced at her watch and saw that only a few hours had passed, and she sighed in relief, not wanting to be entirely useless. Sneakily, she stood up, pushing the covers off of her naked frame and sliding off of his mattress, covering her bare breasts and groin with her hands. Standing in the light of the distant star systems, a shivering Minerva cleared her throat to get Kylo Ren's attention.

He turned his head to look at her, but he didn't stop working on the device in his hand until something clicked in his head. "Oh, um," he started, looking around his room. When he found what he was searching for, he grabbed it and tossed it to her. "Here's my robe. I asked for a spare jumpsuit from storage for you. Boots, too, though I guessed at your size. They're laying in the bathroom, but your underwear is still over by the couch. That is, unless you want to borrow some of mine. Yours seemed rather damp."

She blinked at his straightforwardness. As she stuck her arms through the soft, worn fabric of the robe, she quirked a brow at him. Avoiding his comment, she asked, "A jumpsuit, sir?"

Kylo blinked at her as if his choice should make sense. "Well, you're always so excited to wear pants. I thought you might like to try it out." Without waiting for her to respond, he sat back down at his desk, his gargantuan black frame dwarfing his chair. Nudging a thin piece of metal off of the strange object ever so slightly, he continued in a rambling tone, "My mother always preferred pants. They're practical, which I know is something you can appreciate."

Tightening the sash, she questioned, " _I'm always so excited to wear pants?_ I don't recall discussing fashion trends with you, but..." She straightened up and shut her eyes, sighing as she remembered how talented her friend was at reading minds. Apparently he could even tell what her smallest wishes and whims might be. Was there no privacy? She scrunched up her face with irritation at him as she scratched her head, walking off to the bathroom and mumbling, "Oh, never mind."

Shaking her head, she stepped down into the living area and picked up her underwear from the floor, wadding them up into a ball in her fist as she turned back towards the bathroom. As she walked through the cabin her eyes never strayed from Kylo Ren, who seemed all too busy dismantling the device at his desk to be bothered. Instead of feeling like she'd found a wonderful new lover, she couldn't help but label herself as a guest or an acquaintance in his presence, part of herself failing to recognize the connection that she had just forged with him. He was so distant, yet so close, and his strange powers only added to Minerva's misgivings. To her, it was as if she had made love to a deity, an incredible being that was stronger, braver, bolder, and more in control than she could ever hope to be. What was this and where was it going? Slowly but surely, the naked glow of confidence left her system, only to be replaced with the familiar shroud of uncertainty. Doubt filled her sad mind as she compared herself to him, her rosebud mouth spreading into a thin frown. _Surely it won't last,_ she thought. _Of course he doesn't love me. We only just met. I should have known that this would happen._ The little voices inside her head made her heart twist into a knot. She stepped into the bathroom and slid the door shut, making sure to lock it, even though she'd just had sex with the one and only man who would want to come in.

Sure enough, a folded stack of plastic-sealed clothes sat on top of his toilet seat, a pair of slightly used black boots resting in the floor below. She moved the package out of the way and lifted the lid on the commode, relieving herself and cleaning up after her encounter. She backed off when she touched herself at first, sore from Kylo's persistent forcefulness, but she was able to push through it. Doing all this as quickly as she could to keep herself from embarrassing thoughts, she flushed and stood up, washing her hands and wondering if Kylo Ren was listening to her mind even now. Letting out a quick swear at the stressful, complicated situation she found herself in, she took off the robe and entered the shower, trying not to worry herself too much.

She opened the control panel and selected her regular settings, only slightly alert at this point. As the showerhead turned on, she let out a sound as she was pelted with ice-cold water, despite having programmed the temperature to her usual temperature. As she desperately tried to fix it, she soon realized that the shower wouldn't respond, and that this was as good as it was going to get. Obviously the ship was having a hard time with all of these power outages, and it was apparent that smaller details were being ignored for the sake of the big picture. Minerva gathered up her courage and stepped back into the stream, rubbing shampoo through her hair and dragging a soapy washcloth over her body as quickly as she possibly could. She began to shiver she was so cold, and it seemed like the soap would never wash off. While she was hurrying to get clean, she heard a series of loud thumps against the wall of the bathroom, as if someone were perhaps knocking on the door.

"N-not n-ow, sir," hollered Minerva from the shower, rinsing the seemingly endless soap bubbles out of her hair. When she thought that she could hear him saying something, she shouted frustratedly, "What?"

She didn't hear any response.

After a few seconds, another thump could be heard, but this time it was quieter than the rest. She ignored it and washed herself off, frantically shutting the shower down. With the cruel spray of water off of her, she felt the heat slowly return to her body as she wrapped herself in the nearest towel she could find. The coldest 4 minutes of her life, her teeth clattered as goosebumps rose on her skin. As she dried off, she asked in a loud voice, "Did you need something, sir?"

He didn't respond, but this time she thought that she could hear those muffled bumps again. She frowned. _Whatever,_ she thought, looking for her new clothes. Desperate for warmth, she patted herself down one last time and tossed the towel into the floor.

She smiled at the idea of a new look and pounced on the package, opening the seal with her fingernail. Pulling the plastic wrap off of the perfectly square folded jumpsuit, the smell of stale air escaped, and the jumpsuit began to relax after being stuck in the shape for so long. Minerva unfolded it, noticing a familiar size FM printed in large silver letters inside the collar. Perfect. She unzipped it to the crotch and smelled her one and only pair of underwear before turning them inside out, putting them on with a cringe and stepping into the dark grey jumpsuit one leg at a time.

As she pulled it up to her waist, the feeling of thick cloth bunching up between her legs and separating her thighs was strange, but nice, making her feel ready to run or sit without worrying about flashing anyone. This jumpsuit was five times better than that old hazmat suit in the lab. In fact, it was so much better, that she realized that she could do just about anything, beginning to stretch and kick her legs up into the air ecstatically. She beamed with joy at the usefulness of the outfit and put on her undershirt before zipping it up the rest of the way, waving her arms and smiling at herself in the bathroom mirror in excitement. She grabbed the boots and put on the thick socks that were inside them, prompting her to roll up her pant legs to her ankles like she'd seen the ship engineers and janitors do. With her boots on and ready to go, she gave herself a thumbs up and hurriedly returned to the living room, excited for Kylo Ren to see her.

Brushing her wet hair behind her ear she jumped out from behind the bathroom door and exclaimed, "Look at my-"

 **THWACK.**

A thick metal fist collided with Minerva's mouth, sending her flying back into the wall, her back landing sharply on the corner and flipping her onto her front. She landed face down, the pain in her mouth making her clamp it tightly shut, her eyes sealed closed with extreme pressure. She had never been in so much explosive pain in her life, and soon she was rolling on the ground, her hands pushing against her bleeding lips. She couldn't open her eyes long enough to get a good look at her attacker, but soon she heard a familiar, loud thump on the ground beside her.

Kylo Ren was on top of the man, wrestling with him and reaching for his head. He managed to flip the heavily armored assassin onto his front, sit on his back, and place his hands against his jaw and forehead, using a quick and violent jerking motion to break his neck with a _crack_. Suddenly the crazed wriggling stopped, and a breath could be heard leaving his mouth. When the man beneath him ceased to move, he looked at him for a brief moment as he collected himself before he turned his attention to Minerva.

As he went to sit her up, he saw the massive amount of blood that was leaking out between her fingers. She was crying, but she was willing to cooperate with him. He brushed her wet hair out of her eyes and placed his hand over hers, which were still cupping her mouth. At first she wouldn't budge, but when he told her to comply, she slowly and shakily brought them down to her lap. It didn't take Kylo Ren long to realize what had happened.

When he wouldn't tell her what he saw, she swallowed nervously. Finding it difficult to move her tongue without wincing, she was able to mumble, "W-Wha issit?"

Kylo looked her in the eye as he gently wiped the blood away that was about to drip down her chin. "He knocked out your front teeth." he informed her, watching her brown eyes triple in size. Before she could panic, he changed the subject. "They were Knights of Ren sent here to kill me for treason. They heard everything we said about leaving the Order. They stuck a hidden audio transmitter in the box of kyber crystals they sent me on Supreme Leader's orders. It seems like my old allies have been quick to make an enemy of me."

Somewhat in a daze and still in a tremendous amount of pain, she asked, "Buh don dey follow you?" She looked around the room for the first time, taking in the dead Knight beside her as well as the two others she could see on the floor nearby. He had been ambushed while she was in the shower, but it was obvious that to Kylo Ren, it had been no challenge. He didn't have a scratch on him except for the ones he already had. Minerva rubbed her head. "Is it safe tuh stay here?"

Kylo Ren shook his head. "I don't know for sure. They could be in the same star system or at the edge of the galaxy. I have no way of knowing. The Knights operate on their own." He grabbed her arm and stood her up, leaning her against the wall. He picked up her wrist and checked the time on her datawatch before helping her back into the bathroom. "Here. Clean up and we'll head out. There's no turning back now, Minerva, so are you ready to go? My shuttle is in the hangar; all we need do is leave. We don't have time to twiddle our thumbs here."

Holding back frustrated tears, Minerva glared up at him, conflicted. She'd wanted to see Oscar one last time, and more importantly, work with her uncle on a possible cure if she could, but if their lives were being threatened and their chances to escape were growing fewer and far between, would she be able to? Her tired heart clawed at her as she shut her eyes in battle with herself, never before having to make such a serious and life changing decision in such little time. Knowing that she would never be able to live with herself if she abandoned Oscar, she shook her head in remorse. The thought of starting a new life with Kylo Ren was a pleasant one, but she wasn't sure that it would work out. The outside world was strange and frightening, and if this was how he would be treated -hunted- then she didn't know how long she could last. She couldn't leave now. Her duty was here on this ship; always had been, always would be. She was a nurse, damn it, and she wasn't about to go back on her word now. She wanted to see that little boy find peace after so much disaster, but to do that, she would have to say goodbye to Kylo Ren.

With her tongue, she trailed over the empty patches where her teeth had been and considered the flavor.

* * *

 **HOUR 42**

 **15 KNOWN INFECTED**

 **4 MISSING**

 **17 DEAD**

Dr. Bhali's lab was even larger than Hux remembered. It was sprawling, dark, and always smelled like the body he was working on. Wishing that he had brought his bodyguards in with him instead of staying true to his word to never let anyone else in, Hux tightened the black leather gloves on his hands anxiously, already eager to leave. No one knew about it besides the two men within its borders. To get to the laboratory -a modified storage area for the medical wing- one must pass through a long, winding metal hallway, whose tall and looming walls seemed to suck you in deeper and deeper. Finally, Hux was approaching the inner sanctum, the light above Dr. Bhali's operating table burning a bright blue. Hesitant to walk any farther into the room unaccompanied, he waited until the man himself stepped around the corner to make himself at home. However, cozy wasn't exactly a word Hux would use to describe his host. He knew him too well.

The average yet noble figure moved out from behind a tank of bubbling fluids, his goggles preventing Hux from seeing his eyes. Stuffing a vial of something into his white coat pocket, the man stepped forward with a strange, expectant smile, ready and willing to hear what the general had to say. With an uncomfortably calm voice, Dr. Bhali asked, "Well? What do you think of him?"

Hux paused, remembering the unbelievable security footage. "The boy will do nicely, but," he cleared his throat, hesitant to make the doctor angry. "It would be nice if you had _contained_ him. That was a part of the bargain, Bhali. I'll have to settle for the others and exterminate him before he kills my crew."

The man's smile was gone. "I've upheld my end of the deal, boy. You wanted a killing machine, you got a killing machine. I didn't make any promises regarding my children."

Feeling himself pucker up at the doctor's thought processes, Hux looked at the floor. "Indeed."

Dr. Bhali was staring a hole through him. With an excited tone, he asked, "And what about the others? Did you see them? I've heard that they're in the cafeteria having lunch." Taking a moment to imagine them, he whispered, "They must be magnificent to watch. It's too bad I'm so busy, or else I'd be there myself to observe. The boy was fun, but I'm glad he's gone. He kept asking for his mother, even when I was right there. It was like he wasn't the least bit happy to see me, despite having worked so hard to raise him. He doesn't respect doctors. His mother isn't in any kind of condition to visit him right now, either. Mother isn't ready for her debut."

" _Mother?_ " muttered Hux, immediately regretting saying anything to encourage him.

The doctor's face lit up. "Why yes! Would you like to see her? She's quite beautiful. I'm sure she won't mind if you take a peek."

Hux's blood ran cold. He didn't know how to respond, and if he said the wrong thing, he might be the next one to end up on his operating table. When the doctor walked towards a door, he followed, not wanting to offend him. His legs felt heavy as he inched deeper and deeper into this unnatural, clinical cavern. As the two walked on and on, Hux could have sworn that he heard a baby crying. It was faint and far off, but it was there; the sharp screams of an infant. It was like a phantom. He shuttered at the thought and told himself that he was just scared, that there wasn't anything there at all. It was too late to regret his choices now.

All too quickly they had arrived at the room, and soon Dr. Bhali had opened the door, letting out a bizarre stench that reminded Hux of rotten milk. He covered his nose and mouth with a handkerchief and followed the doctor in. When his eyes found the mother, he wanted to vomit, but his body was frozen. He could only look on helplessly as the woman, or what was left of her, stared at him from afar. In her eyes, her hauntingly human eyes, was a desperate plea for death.

Parts of her body were reminiscent of humanity, like the patches of long blonde hair that clung to her melted skull, but what Hux saw was just a monster. A sin that should never had been made. Even her soul was in agony. The creature was massive and groaning, no doubt inflated by the virus and Dr. Bhali's efforts. However, she was too hollow to scream. She just laid there and remained, tortured by living, all because of him.

For the first time since his childhood, Armitage Hux felt the need to pray. However, he did not know whether anyone would listen.

* * *

 **Hey guys! Here's hoping you liked this chapter! I'm trying to stay on top of posting, but at the same time I still have a lot of stuff going on, so please be patient. Anyways, how are you liking the story so far? PLEASE let me know by leaving a review. If you hated it, tell me what I'm doing wrong. If you loved it, please tell me why. I love hearing back from my readers and it always makes me feel so great to know that you all are out there. Even the smallest little comment can make my day! Thank you to everyone who has been with me since day one, AND to you new guys out there! You're all pretty freaking rad! Love ya bunches boo bears. Hang in there! Things are about to get crazy!**

 **\- Molly**


	8. Hour 42

**HOUR 42**

 **15 KNOWN INFECTED**

 **4 MISSING**

 **20 DEAD**

Kylo Ren grabbed Minerva's arm forcefully, almost causing her to drop her two front teeth that she had just recovered from the floor. He couldn't believe that she actually wanted to stay, and to make his opinion clear that she was acting like a fool, he decided that she wouldn't have a choice in the matter. They were leaving. Now.

"Hey! Wait a second," she shouted, trying to free herself from his firm grasp. As she yanked and pulled against him, she was amazed at how strong he was, and no matter what she did or how hard she tried to go against him, the brick wall of a man simply wouldn't budge. She was like a little child, and the fact that she'd just lost her two front teeth wasn't helping her case. She might as well put her hair in pigtails. Irritated by his stubbornness, Minerva hollered, "Let me go or I'll scream! You can't just drag me around!"

Kylo Ren looked at her over his shoulder and spat, "Watch me."

As Minerva uselessly attempted to pry herself free, Kylo pulled her over to his weapons cabinet, a concealed and inconspicuously thin slip in the wall that slid out to reveal dozens of blasters, rifles, spears and knives, all on a slanted metal rack. Seeing this display made her stop her fighting and look, her heartbeat speeding up with worry as she thought about what he might need any of it for. He reached out and grabbed an intimidating DH-X heavy blaster rifle, a thick and squatty thing that Minerva knew could rip holes in men the size of melon. It had a strap with it so that you could wear it over your shoulder, seeing as how it weighed several pounds. Letting go of Minerva's wrist, Kylo took the strap and put her arm through it, giving it to her nonchalantly.

Putting her teeth in the pocket of her jumpsuit for safe keeping, Minerva held the rifle with both hands very, very cautiously. She was afraid of things like that, and she felt that if she as much as looked at it wrong the gun would come to life and shoot a trench through something. Starting to sweat, she looked down at the rifle and back up at Kylo Ren, her eyes jutting between the two as she thought of what to say. As he picked up different guns and decided on which one he wanted, Minerva stuttered, "I-I-I-I d-don't want to kill anyone. Take it back."

Acting as if she hadn't said anything, he didn't respond. He looked at another weapon and peered down its scope, then began looking at a knife with a blade the size of Minerva's forearm.

"T-take it back," she repeated, holding it out to him. "You need it more than I do, sir."

Sheathing the strange looking knife and attaching it to his belt, Kylo furrowed his brow in frustration and said, "You may not _want_ to kill anyone, but eventually you'll have to, so you might as well stop whining. And stop calling me sir! It makes me feel like a senator or something." He grabbed a pistol in a harness and attached it to his belt as well, adding, "I gave you that so that you don't necessarily have to aim to hit something. Even you can't mess it up. With that you'll at least take off a leg."

"A leg?" Minerva swallowed harshly, almost cartoonishly. Looking at the blaster rifle, she frowned. "Please, I-I couldn't. I couldn't possibly."

"Where we're going is dangerous!" insisted Ren, holding fierce eye-contact. Taking a step forward, he looked down on her and said, "If we're going to make it off of this ship and out of this system, we're going to have to fight. I can take you far away from the Order if you'll just trust me. It'll be tough, but worth it in the end."

"We could die!" she said, her round face full of worry. Her dark brown eyes gleamed impassionedly as she pleaded, "Please, let's at least try to leave this place better than we left it! We can find Oscar and take him to my uncle on Dreadnaught! Please, I need to get him help. We can't leave yet until we have Oscar with us."

He shook his head in disbelief. The boy was probably dead by now knowing Hux and his troopers, yet she refused to understand that. She was so selfless it was sickening. Slowly and without his knowledge, a dark flame was growing inside of him. Kylo was practically seething as a familiar sense of rage boiled up into his throat. "No! We're not staying!"

Kattran replied desperately, "Dr. Bhali will help us! Please, just-"

"We can't!"

"- I have to help him! I have to-"

"We're leaving!"

"- I need to find Oscar-"

Raising his hand to her, without thinking, he slapped her, the sound of the strike sharp and mean. He looked down at her as he watched her grab her wounded cheek, her already sore mouth now amplified with pain. It was only until she let out a small sound that he had realized what he had done. The darkness within him vanished, making him react as if he had just woken up from a dream. Feeling like he had just destroyed a precious work of art or stepped on a cheerful flower, Kylo rushed to grab her, but she quickly pushed his hurtful hands away. She took several steps back and looked at him, her eyes full of tears. Unable to say anything, he could only stare at her wide-eyed, a pit forming in his stomach with self-hatred.

Finally, after a tense few seconds he managed to mumble her name in the tone of an apology.

" _Minerva."_

The look on her face was enough to silence him. Holding her cheek from where he had struck her, the tears that came tumbling down landed on her fingertips, leading wet trails down to her knuckles and wrist. Silently she scolded herself for ever falling for a man like the one before her; a heartbreaking liar and a cheat. She remembered how wonderful it had felt to find someone she could relate to, but now those memories were tainted. Now, she never wanted to see him again.

"I never should have listened to you," she whispered, the only sound in the breathless room.

She rubbed her eyes with her sleeve before pulling herself together. Kylo felt his heart drop as he watched her run out the door. He could hear her thinking to herself about him, and now more than ever, he wished that he had never bonded with her. Furious with himself, he screamed and fired his blaster at the ceiling, making his dusty chandelier come crashing down like a dream.

* * *

 **HOUR 43**

 **15 KNOWN INFECTED**

 **4 MISSING**

 **22 DEAD**

Una found that it was getting harder and harder to breathe in the command center. Everything was starting to shut down for good on the top floors, and it seemed like no matter what they did the air regulation system simply refused to work. Steadily they were running out of air, but instead of talking about it, everyone was focusing on the two men outside who were ripping the limbs off of their comrades. From the shreds of clothing that remained on their crazed bodies one could tell that they had once been shuttle pilots, the satiny black uniforms hanging around their necks and a bit at the waist. The rest had been ripped away by what appeared to be extreme muscle growth. They were gigantic, their arms and legs as round as tree trunks and just as strong. However, their skin had fallen off in places, leaving their bleeding muscles exposed and leaking. No one knew where they had come from or what had happened to them, only that they were banging on the doors to the command center with relentless, mind numbing force. No one knew that is, except for Una.

She couldn't forget how poorly Minerva had looked in the cafeteria and how she had reacted to her accusations. Always the timid sort, Una had never seen Minerva lash out so wildly. Una wished that she'd never said anything, and that her friend was with her now. Running the conversation she had had with her over and over again through her head, Una focused on the last line every time. " _You don't know what I've seen. None of you know."_

Sadly, now she did. Something wasn't right about the whole situation. Although they had been briefed on the radiation victims in the medical bay, it seemed to Una as if not enough had been done about them. The two men at the door had to have been affected, so why hadn't Dr. Bhali notified security? Had he been torn apart, too?

Una thought that she was about to go crazy from listening to their insane screams and incessant banging. They had all been stuck there for the past hour with no idea of what to do. Every time a response team of troopers had been sent in from other areas to deal with the problem, each and every one of them had been torn apart and partially eaten. Sometimes one of the men would rip off pieces of flesh from their legs and cheeks, stuffing it into their mouths and gobbling it down in the most disturbing way. When she had seen one of them do it the first time she thought that she was hallucinating, but it was made real when Phasma made an order to seal off the top floors. They were out of options. No other attempts would be made to eliminate the threat until General Hux returned.

But, would he come back?

Dragging her hand across the pistol on her belt to make sure that it was still there, Una stood up from her position and walked across the floor to Captain Phasma and Captain Chambra, who were busily examining escape roots and possible attack positions. Trying to add her little bit of information to the pot, Una saluted and waited for acknowledgment.

"What is it, Officer Veers?" asked Phasma, her polished helmet catching the glow of the overhead lights. The tone of her voice was easy to read, even through a vocoder, and it was obvious that she was nervous.

Una dropped her hand to her side and said, "My friend Minerva Caulder, the human nurse down in med bay... She's in the brig now... I think she knows what this is and where those men came from." She glanced over at Captain Chambra, who had been quick to come to her defense earlier, and added, "The last time I spoke with her she was quite disturbed about something, and now you're saying that she's lost her job on Dr. Bhali's request for a mediocre reason. Surely there's a connection."

Phasma straightened up inquisitively. "What kind of connection, Veers? Are you saying that Dr. Bhali has something to do with those hellians outside?"

Before Una could answer her, Captain Chambra chimed in. "Of course he does." He looked at Phasma and said, "What I saw in there was far from natural. From what I understand of it I'm lucky to be alive. It's all that radiation from Starkiller, but instead of quarantining the victims he set them out on full display. I can't understand why. Also, just a few minutes before the little boy was supposed to be sent down the airlock he managed to quite conveniently escape."

"Perhaps we can contact him and ask what would be most effective in deterring them, sir," advised Una, her determined blue eyes adding to her point. "They have to be from Starkiller, surely. That means he would have seen them before. However..."

"...However that would mean that they were in the medical bay to begin with and broke out," finished Chambra. "Just like the boy."

Phasma looked at the two of them as the strangeness of it all began to sink in. "The men outside have pilots uniforms on. Hux ordered that the bodies of the pilots from the Kurlish family shuttle to be sent off of the ship to prevent infection." She clenched her fist and slammed it on the table. "Dammit, the bastards never left the ship! Bhali kept them here untreated like a festering wound!"

"Exactly," spoke Chambra, his eyes shadowed over with thought. "Officer Veers, I have a feeling that Miss Caulder was sabotaged. Bhali wanted her gone, but for what purpose? Why would a gold-level doctor want any of this to happen? He's a proud supporter of the Order."

The three of them looked at eachother for a while in contemplation, none of them knowing the answer. A dark cloud started to form as their questions mounted. Trying to find an answer, Captain Phasma muttered, "Veers, instruct the warden to release Nurse Caulder and to bring her to the command deck. We need her insight, even if she's a traitor. The general will agree with my decision once he learns of the threat outside."

"Yes, and what about Zhet?" asked Chambra. "Is he in any condition yet to talk? He may be of use to us."

Phasma shook her head. "I doubt he'll be speaking about the incident in the reactor room any time soon. The medical droid had to give him a tranquilizer so that he would stop screaming at the officers. Whatever he saw down there has turned him mad. Terrible waste of an engineer, really."

Chambra blinked at her frankness and cleared his throat. "Well, then we'd best send for Miss Caulder. Veers, go and retrieve her. We'll send you down the emergency exit ladder to floor 7. From there you can take an elevator. While you're gone we'll do a little research on the good doctor."

Phasma nodded her head in silent agreement.

Una saluted the two of them before marching in the direction of the ladder. She didn't hesitate when it came to her friends, and Minerva was her closest one. She wanted to make it up to her for behaving so poorly, and now she felt incredibly determined to do so. She approached the exit door with a decisive look on her face and took a deep breath. What was awaiting her was yet to be determined.

When she reached the thin door that was built into the thick walls of the ship, she pulled the red lever and released the lock with a hissing sound. When the door opened she could feel a strange, cool breeze blowing lazily up through the wall, almost as if the ship were breathing. When she stuck her head in to get a view of what she would be climbing, she couldn't help but feel a bit scared. Dim red lights were at each level above the exit doors, all in a long, seemingly endless line that stretched on for thousands of feet. Through these narrow tunnels you could reach any floor of the ship, a skeleton key in the form of a bottomless pit. Like a rat making its home in the walls of a house, Una climbed onto the ladder and carefully made her descent into unknown territory.

 **HOUR 43**

 **15 KNOWN INFECTED**

 **4 MISSING**

 **22 DEAD**

Minerva had been running for quite some time, desperate not to catch the eye of a trooper or a stick-in-the-mud lieutenant. The hallways of the ship seemed empty, almost as if the crew were trying to scare her by jumping out from behind a column after a long run of hide-and-seek. In fact, the place was so empty, she thought that she might be dreaming; stuck in a nightmare. Her sweaty hands gripped the gun Kylo Ren had given her tighter and tighter the longer she went without seeing anyone. She hated being alone, especially when she was frightened. Her heavy footfalls echoed down the corridor as a kind of companion, that and her rigid breathing. Not quite sure where to go and not wanting to stop, she just kept running. That is, until her datawatch went off.

The little chime seemed about a hundred levels louder than it usually did, sending Minerva jumping into the air from nerves. Thinking she'd been shot or electrified or melted into a puddle, she scrunched up her face as if to brace for impact, but when she realized that the sound was more like a notification beeping quite cheerfully on her wrist instead of blaster fire, she rolled her eyes at herself and let out a shaky breath. She looked at her watch to see who it was that was ringing her and realized that it was her uncle, Graf Renley. Immediately she accepted the transmission.

"Oh, thank the stars," she sighed, placing a hand on her chest. "It's you and not death staring me in the face."

Dr. Renley let out a huff and leaned into his screen to get a better look at Minerva's surroundings. "Minerva, where in the world are you? I told you to stay in your room, and now you've... you've gone and gotten the ivories knocked out of your bloody head! Oh look at you now, my dear! Have you lost your marbles? What am I to do with you?"

Minerva blushed and lowered her head to hide the gap from view, but stood up for herself with, "They threw me in the brig for treason, uncle. Even if I _had_ stayed in my cabin it wouldn't have made a difference."

The look on her uncle's face was one of complete bewilderment. "For treason? Against whom? Treason is too advanced a crime for someone like you, my dear."

"Against the Order," she said, still trying to catch her breath. "General Hux locked me in and Dr. Bhali threw away the key. I-I'm not very popular around here, uncle."

"Well what happened to your damn teeth?" he asked in a concerned a tone as his raspy voice could manage. "Who let you out of the brig? What are you doing now? I have so many questions, dear!"

Remembering that she was still out in the open in the middle of the hallway, Minerva walked behind a column to a cleaning closet and crammed herself inside, sliding the door shut behind her. Inside of her makeshift hiding place, she informed him that, "Kylo Ren let me out. But one of his boys punched me in the mouth, so I think we're even. Right now I'm on hallway 31 just running around with a huge gun that Lord Ren gave me. I don't know what to do."

Dr. Renley's eyes widened at the mention of Kylo Ren, but knowing that his niece always told the truth, he didn't question it. He sat there quietly and listened to her dilemma.

Minerva continued. "Y-you see, Oscar is alive, but he's loose somewhere on _Finalizer_. A man in the medical bay told me that he was covered in scales and could melt away the locks on doors. I don't think Dr. Bhali could contain him. H-he might've even killed him, I don't really know. Either way, I still want to find Oscar and heal him somehow. Did you call me because you had news regarding the diagnosis?"

Snapping out of his haze, Dr. Renley nodded his head dramatically and cleared his throat, the pieces of the puzzle fitting together in his mind rather well. "Yes, my dear. By what you've told me and by who we're dealing with, I can say with 100% certainty that the boy is suffering from the bioweapon's Dathomirian Plague. Dr. Bhali was the one who designed it all those years ago and who was the one that so passionately argued its case in the council. I found his name listed on the record behind a few miles of red tape."

Minerva's blood ran cold. The realization that a doctor that she had once looked up to could come up with something so horrendous was mind blowing to her; impossible, even. However, it made everything make horrible sense. "Y-y-you're saying that Dr. Bhali planned this from the beginning? But that's criminal!"

"Yes, because he _is_ a criminal, my dear." stated Dr. Renley. "He was a biochemical engineer on a satellite colony near Felucia. He used to do experiments there on slaves and sell the results to war lords all over the Outer Rim Territories. About 15 years ago is when he caught the eye of the Supreme Leader and was inducted into the First Order. His paperwork was smudged to make it look as if he was a natural born citizen."

Minerva covered her mouth in shock. He was her mentor, and had always encouraged her to do good work. He had even picked her specifically from her graduating class. Everything she knew was crashing down around her, and now she was beginning to feel thankful for the gun hanging from her shoulder. She felt betrayed.

"Why would the Supreme Leader want someone like that for the Order? He could bring down this whole ship from what he's done! What could he do to the Colony with this kind of technology?" She shut her eyes in frustration and asked, "Please, tell me, uncle, just what kind of threat are we dealing with? Is there anything that can be done?"

Renley looked at her intensely and frowned. "Yes and no."

Minerva perked up to listen, but when he didn't continue right away she impatiently asked, "W-what is it?"

He rubbed his eyes exhaustedly and sighed, almost as if he didn't want to tell her the answer. Pausing to take a drag from the thick cigar that was resting in his ashtray, Renley's words were shrouded by smoke when he said, "Bhali created an antidote for the bioweapon, but the chances of finding the materials for it are slim to none. It was a crystalline fluid made from something called a kyber crystal; pulverized into a fine dust. The things are so rare that generally a buyer will be willing to pay up to a million credits just to get their hands on a shard. I think at this point, my dear, it's best if Oscar was euthanized. At least then his pain would come to an end. He would be with his mother."

Minerva straightened up as the words jogged her memory. When Kylo Ren had found the transmitter in his room, he'd told her that it was hidden in a box of kyber crystals that the Knights had sent him. She burst out into a brilliant smile as she shouted, "I know where I can get some! Uncle, I know where some kyber crystals are!"

"What!?" spouted Renley, coughing on his cloud of dust.

"Yes, I..." Minerva suddenly dropped the grin. Remembering how badly she had parted from him, she wondered whether or not he would be willing to cooperate. Within a few seconds, she found herself right back where she started. Looking at her watch at her uncle's face, she sighed and shook her head. "I know where some are, but I don't know if I can get to them. They belong to Kylo Ren, and... I don't think he'll part with them very easily. He's not a nice man. He's hard to understand."

Her uncle twisted up his face. "Well he was nice enough to break you out of jail, my dear. Surely he would loan you a fleck of the stuff." Excited by the possibility of seeing a plague victim healed, he sat up in his chair and egged her on. "Go and see him. Hurry! The faster you can create the serum and find the boy the sooner you will be redeemed in the eyes of your comrades!"

Minerva's heart skipped a beat as she thought of meeting Kylo again, and a soft rose shade came to her cheeks, but she was still sore from his senseless attack. She couldn't understand why someone so open and loveable could at once turn into someone so cruel. Admittedly, she had only known him for a few days, but deep down she had felt this wonderful connection with him that she had never felt with anyone else. He was special and she knew it, but would she disrespect herself by throwing herself at him after this? She wanted love -craved it- but if this was the way she would receive it, on the back of a hand, then she wanted nothing to do with it. However, there was more riding on their relationship than just themselves. Gathering up her courage, she accepted her uncle's challenge.

"I-I'll go back and speak with him if he remains on the ship." she said, eyeing her uncle determinedly. "Thank you for this. I promise I won't let you down."

Renley grinned. "Then don't."

 _Click._

Minerva dropped her arm to her side and took a deep breath, encouraged by the conversation. Ready to start on her journey once again, Minerva opened to door to the supply closet and stepped out into the hallway, looking down at her boots. Distracted by the thought of saving Oscar, she didn't realize that someone was standing outside waiting on her. When her head ran into the man's chest, her heart leaped into her throat and she jumped back, letting out a sharp scream. A hand covered her mouth that was very familiar.

"Are you looking for a kyber crystal?" asked Kylo Ren.

Minerva blinked. It was like a handsome ghost had just passed over from the other side, sent to startle her and then whisper sweet nothings in her ear. When he removed his hand from her mouth, she could only manage an, "uh, yeah... I am."

"Here," he said, pulling one of the little things out of his pocket. "I heard you needed one."

Taking the clear shard out of his hand and twirling it around in her fingers, Minerva put it into the same pocket as her teeth. More confused than she was scared, she asked, "How did you know that I-"

"I was listening to your conversation through the door."

Minerva paused. "... How did you find me?"

"You're very easy to find."

"... How-"

"I'm sorry that I struck you. I never should have laid a hand on you and I'll never do it again." he interrupted, keeping his distance. "To make it up to you I'll help you find Oscar, then I'll leave you alone forever. I promise."

"... Ok." she whispered, honestly grateful for the help. After a second she flashed a small grin, but she quickly hid it again. For quite a while nothing was said, and the two of them simply stood there and stared at eachother.

A single thought ran through her mind as she took in the intoxicating scar that ran from the bottom of his jaw to the edge of his eyebrow. _Who the hell is this man?_

* * *

 **Hey hey hey everybody! How did you like this chapter? Things are starting to unravel! PLEASE let me know what you thought about this chapter by leaving me a review, and if you have any questions, please feel free to ask! Getting reviews really encourages me to keep writing because it shows that there are people out there who want me to keep going! I love having the support system of this group! To everyone who has left a review in the past, thanks a ton! Thank you to all of my readers out there, and thank you to everyone who has been with me since day 1! You're beautiful and lovely and wonderful, all of you! ALSO In the next few weeks I will be releasing a music playlist of songs that I think reflect certain parts of the story and the vibe therein, so stay tuned! I'm hoping that it really adds an aesthetic that makes the story a little more exciting. Anyway, love ya mean it! See you all soon!**

 **\- Molly**


	9. Day 5

**DAY 5**

 **HOUR 45**

 **46 KNOWN INFECTED**

 **6 MISSING**

 **37 DEAD**

Hux snapped out of it when he heard a thud in the air shaft. As he sat at the edge of his bed and waited to hear another noise, waiting for something to jump out and grab him, the silence in his cabin sprayed across his nerves like alcohol on a papercut. His entire body stiffened until finally he figured out what it was. The cooling system had gone out. He slammed his eyes shut and let out the painfully tight breath he had been holding in as he relaxed his back into a slouch. Holding his head in his hands, he could feel the sweat on his face like hot oil, dripping and coating his fingertips as if he'd just stepped out of the shower. Bits of his orange hair clung to his wet forehead and the back of his white collar had turned grey.

His plan crumbled all around him like the bile on the floor. Vomit had dried in places on the rug at his feet, and from where he had thrown up onto his liquor cabinet chunks of it dripped onto the silver serving tray below. He couldn't imagine now why he had thought that it would have been such a wonderful idea. A powerplay, an in your-face-I-was-right show of force. Everything had gone wrong, and damn it, he should have known. The deal with the devil, however, had been too sweet, and now it had come back to bite him. He was trembling uncontrollably and had been ever since he'd seen Mother. He cringed at the thought.

 _Mother... Always Mother... Why must he call it that?_ He asked himself over and over again. Everything about it felt so wrong that he wondered if he could ever get it out of his mind. The image of the woman bloated and skinned like a drowned, rotting corpse was enough to send him over the edge time and time again. The doctor's voice followed him everywhere he went.

Hux had been present at the very council meeting where Dr. Bhali's plague developments were shut down; annihilated before they'd even been made into a formal proposal. The unassuming doctor had simply shown up at the request of the Supreme Leader to show off his then experimental chemical weapon. After a few minutes of him explaining what it did, where it came from, and who it would affect, a group of generals silenced him and threatened him with a prison sentence if he ever carried out the construction of the weapon due to what they had said at the time were "basic moral instincts". This made the man visibly angry, but he managed to contain himself and salute the council before returning to his lab on the Colony. Hux watched him from his seat in the corner of the room, ideas racing through his head at the kind of power a weapon like that could possess. He'd met with him in secret and funded the whole thing for his personal gain without fully understanding what it was. Never once had he questioned it. Not until now.

Back then Hux had thought that his comrades had missed out on the deal of a lifetime. It was just another weapon to add to the arsenal of the Order, who at the time were in the middle of building one of the most powerful super weapons of all time, Starkiller Base. He couldn't understand why something like the bottled plague that Bhali carried with him would be any different. Either way, death was coming for their enemies, so why not change the game? Hux shook his head at himself at his old way of thinking and shivered as he imagined what could have happened to the planets of Hosnian Prime if the plans for the weapon had been given the go-ahead sooner. Finally, with a chill creeping up each bump of his spine, he realized that in this way, he had spared them a gruesome, horrible death.

A mad, wheezing laugh erupted from Hux's throat as he thought of the planets exploding, one by one. What had only taken a minute and seventeen seconds by his count could have drawn out for weeks or years, each planet and its population succumbing to beasts like the one he had seen earlier. A mother, whose flesh has fallen off of her from boils and blisters. A mother whose child was taken from her in jest. She had expected a trade, after all. A trade of one life for hers. Except, she didn't want hers back. She was a mother who wanted to die.

 _Mother._

He flinched, as if the word had slapped him across the face.

 _Mother._

He covered his ears and shut his eyes, but hers were still looking at him.

 _Mother._

Hux stood up and grabbed the gun, shoving it in his mouth and pulling the trigger before he could hear the word again. With a bone shattering crack, his brain was smeared across his white pillowcases.

In the corner of the bedroom his transmitter lit up, but that wasn't his problem any more.

* * *

 **HOUR 45**

 **47 KNOWN INFECTED**

 **6 MISSING**

 **38 DEAD**

Minerva folded the flimsy photograph over in her hand, tracing the crease down its middle with her thumb. She had somehow convinced Kylo Ren to go with her back to her cabin to retrieve it, despite the damocles hanging over their heads. In Minerva's mind, at least its final blow would be softer with this photo in her hands. It was a picture of her grandmother Rabé. Young and beautiful, her twenty year old grandmother stared back at her with a slight grin, posing for her official portrait during her first year as Queen Amidala's handmaiden. Although the photo had faded over time, you could still see the details in the luxurious orange and red velvet robes, as well as her dark brown eyes peeking out from beneath her hood. She was beautiful.

Feeling comforted from seeing her grandmother's face again, Minerva pressed it to her chest and wished to herself that the woman was there with her now. She was more of a parent than either her mother or father had ever been, and she had always been there for her no matter what. Shutting her eyes to keep from crying, Minerva swore that she would give her left arm to bring her back.

"Hmm." sounded Ren from the corner of her cabin, his arms crossed. His eyebrows had furrowed with surprise.

Minerva turned to look at him, but read his face wrong. Thinking that he was growing impatient, she said, "We can leave now if you want. This is all I wanted."

Just as she was about to stuff the picture in the same pocket as her broken teeth and the strange crystal, Kylo lightly touched her shoulder, motioning for her to hand it over. Hesitant to hand him something so special to her, Minerva was slow to give it to him. She didn't look him in the eye, either. When he took it, he stared at her for a while before looking at the picture, desperate for those blackish-brown eyes of hers to glance up at him like they had before.

Examining the picture of her grandmother, Kylo cleared his throat as if to dismiss the tension in the room and stated, "Your grandmother was my grandmother's handmaiden."

Getting what he wanted, her eyes shot up in his direction, a mixture of surprise and anger within them. Trying to decide what to say, she looked at the floor and hissed, "Don't lie to me like that. She means alot to me."

"Why would I lie to you?" replied Ren, handing the picture back to her.

As she snatched the photo from his grip and stuffed it into her pocket, she said, "Because I know that you're trying to make me forget that you slapped me silly for going against your wishes, oh mystical, all knowing, all seeing, omnipotent one." She glared at him and made her move towards the door. "Well I'm not falling for it. You might be a wizard but you're sure as hell not a descendant of Lady Padmé."

Before she reached the control pad to open the door, a large hand slammed by her head and landed flat against the frame. Leaning over her, Kylo looked down at the back of her neck and at the curls that shivered as he let out several frustrated breaths. Speaking into her collar, he said in a low voice, "Well then she shouldn't have married a Sith lord, now should she? It presents a little bit of a problem as far as morality is concerned."

Undeterred by his aggressive tactics, Minerva flipped around and stared defiantly into his eyes. "How dare you talk about Queen Amidala that way! Just because your grandfather was Darth Vader doesn't mean that you can make things up about other famous people. It's ludicrous to think that she had ever even met him."

Thinking back on all of the fantastic stories that her grandmother had told her about the woman, she couldn't believe Kylo for a moment without getting angry. She had grown up on stories about the lovely and clever Padmé Amidala fighting for peace and justice during the invasion of Naboo alongside two real jedi. Her grandmother had told her that they were one of the last jedi that she had ever seen, and that she knew that they were real. No one else in Minerva's family seemed to agree. But Minerva had always listened to Rabé's stories, believing in them wholeheartedly. The fact that he was disagreeing with her, too, added to the fire.

Kylo Ren was confused for a moment about how offended she was until he realized where she had been getting her sources from. The last time her grandmother had seen Padmé was when she stepped down to become a senator, no longer in need of handmaidens. Not long after that she was probably married to a man who eventually joined the Empire, and that was why Minerva even knew about his grandmother at all. The First Order only taught their citizens about historical figures that involved themselves in the Empire, and didn't necessarily want any outside information leaking in. The fact that Minerva had even heard of _Naboo_ was a miracle.

Just as he was about to say something, the door to Minerva's cabin suddenly shot open, sending the curly haired woman landing flat on her back in the middle of the hallway. Drawing his blaster and aiming it at the person responsible, he quickly realized that no one was there.

" _ **Emergency systems online. Please leave all doors open for proper ventilation as we enter lockdown. Mandatory evacuation into hangar bays 3, 4, 5, 8, and 11 will begin in 15 minutes. Do not use emergency exits and keep to main hallways. Emergency systems online. Please leave all doors open for proper ventilation..."**_

As the electronically generated female voice started its warning over again, the lights in the gunmetal grey hallway turned off only to be replaced with eerie red emergency lights, blinking occasionally and making the whole hallway go dark for the blink of an eye. It was harder to see now, and sensing the tension, Kylo Ren quickly hoisted Minerva back up off of the ground. Every cabin door in the hallway was opened, but no one seemed to be in them. All of them were pitch black inside with Minerva's in the center of them like a nightlight. You couldn't see to the end of the hallway anymore in either direction, as if you could take one wrong step and fall right off into space.

" _ **...into hangar bays 3, 4, 5..."**_

The out-of-place, calm, female voice ran through her warning again at the same ear piercing volume as it had the first and second time, creating the opposite, undesired effect in Minerva. She covered her ears forcefully and looked up at Kylo with wide, frightened eyes, unsure of what to do. Suddenly a wave of crushing guilt came over her as the image of Oscar popped into her head again. Had she failed him? Was it too late? Her heart began to race as she remembered all of the spare moments she could have used to search for him. Feeling her anxiety catching up with her, her breathing sped up into quick, desperate breaths to compensate, trying without succeeding to end the bit of nausea rising up in her throat.

" **...** _ **exits and keep to main hallways..."**_

"W-we've wasted too much time," she muttered, barely loud enough for him to hear. "They're going to kill him I know they are oh no no no I know they are they're going to they're going to kill him I know it we're too late oh no oh no I know I know they're going to I-I-I-I-"

"Minerva." shouted Ren over the emergency announcement. He grabbed her shoulder and said, "Let's go now. We still have time to look for him." He took her hand and started moving.

" _ **...leave all doors open..."**_

"Y-yes, let's g-go-go now." she stuttered in agreement, reaching to make sure that her gun was still at her side. Turning towards the end of the hall, she started jogging beside him, refusing to blink. The two of them ran at a steady pace, the echo of their boots bouncing down the endless hallway as if to taunt them. The farther they went the tighter Minerva held onto the gun, slipping her fingers onto the trigger as she felt her arms and hands tingle with nerves. The red lights hurt her eyes and made it seem as if she would go blind. Her head pounded, her stomach ached; nothing seemed right anymore.

" **...** _ **Emergency systems online..."**_

Her mind raced as she thought of what could have made them trigger the emergency system. The ship had been floating for days now without power in some parts and water in others. What had made them change their minds about the situation so drastically? Her mind shot to Oscar with the fear that he had hurt someone or himself and she began to cry. However, she never shut her eyes, the hot tears that poured down her face coming with no restraint. She just kept running, running beside Kylo Ren until suddenly his arm shot out in front of her chest. They stopped mid stride and looked ahead at the emergency exit door that had been opened part way.

" _ **...Do not use emergency exits..."**_

It was the way to the stairs, and it seemed that whoever was using the exit had already made their escape. But where? Thinking the exact same thing, the two of them looked up the hall to try and see if they could see anyone, but it was too dark to tell. However, it wasn't long until their mystery guest had given up their location. Turns out, they hadn't made it past the door. Falling off of the stairs and colliding with the door a bit on her way down was Una. She lay flat on the floor like a corpse; unmoving and tired.

Minerva screamed when she realized who she was, running towards her and picking up her limp upper half from the floor. She got on her knees and leaned into her, cupping her face with her hands as she shouted her name. The pretty blonde had gone pale, and with a quick glance it was easy to see why. She was missing her right leg past the knee and had almost bled out totally.

"U-Una, please, _please_ say something! Oh Una, please say something to me! Una! _Una!_ " screamed Minerva, her face twisting and contorting in agony as she held onto her friend's body. "Please! Una, please! Please, please, please..."

A tiny sound left Una's throat. Minerva froze in place for a moment, then leaned in closer, stroking her cheek and mumbling, "W-what? What did you say?"

"I'm sorry, Minerva," she whispered, her voice like a long groan. She barely moved her lips and patches of grey had gathered beneath her eyes. "I wanted to tell you... that."

Kylo Ren watched on from afar, knowing that now wasn't the time to talk. He kept his distance to allow Minerva her final moment with her friend. However, when he saw a strange flash of expression in the dying woman's face, he was tempted to interrupt.

"Una, there's nothing to forgive! I love you! You're my dearest friend!" replied Minerva, trying to smile.

Una laid still. "...Do you mean that?" she whispered.

Minerva blinked. "Y-yes of course. Una, I-"

Out of nowhere Una took a bite out of Minerva's forearm, sinking her teeth deep through the sleeves of her jumpsuit, into her skin, and sending her into a sharp scream. When she tried to break away, Una wrapped her arms around her, making her her prisoner. She took another bite near her elbow before Kylo Ren could do anything. He pulled out his blaster and shot her directly between the eyes, sending bits of her head flying everywhere and covering Minerva in blood. As her body fell limp and was obviously dead, Kylo stepped forward and moved the screaming girl away, leaning her up against the opposite wall.

Pulling her hand away to look at her wounds, Kylo was shocked to see just how deep she had gone. It was as if a wild animal had stalked her for prey. She had gone through the rough fabric of the jumpsuit like it was butter, sending up a cause for alarm.

"Was she infected with that radiation stuff? Minerva, was she?" he asked, tearing off a piece of his robe to tie around her arm. When she didn't respond, he repeated himself even louder, "Minerva, was she infected?"

With wide eyes, she looked at him and shook her head. "I-I don't know."

"What do I need to do? What should we do?" he asked, frantically touching her and looking up and down the hall. "Minerva, hey, what do I need to do?"

"I don't know," she mumbled, staring off into space. "I don't know."

"What do you need?"

"I don't know."

"What do I do?"

"I don't know."

" _ **Emergency systems online. Please leave all doors open for ventilation."**_

After a long pause, Kylo perked up nervously. Thinking he heard something, he turned to look down the other end of the hallway. Something was looking back at him, and it had friends.

* * *

 **Hey guys! Sorry for the short chapter, but finals are going on right now at school and really I didn't just want to shove something else into it unnecessarily. Plus, I'm trying to keep doing biweekly updates, so stay with me! I double posted this time to give the soundtrack I've made its own page with explanations for track choices, so there's a little something waiting for you if you want to check it out! SO ANYWAY, what did you guys think of this chapter? Please oh pretty please write me a review, will you? I absolutely love hearing back from my readers and it really encourages me to keep going. If I don't hear anything I get pretty discouraged, so thank you for commenting so much so far. You're all so wonderful and so kind to take the time to do it and it genuinely helps me out. And if there's anyone else out there in college, good luck on your finals! Don't forget to check out the soundtrack page to find something new to jam out to while you study!**

 **\- Molly**


	10. Bonus: Soundtrack to the Story

**DIAGNOSIS - SOUNDTRACK to the STORY**

 _ **Where to Find It:**_

Search Comfysockz on youtube, where you'll see my hideous profile picture of an 8 yearold me in a turtleneck and a bowl cut praying for some reason (Hey, at least it's eye catching!). On my page find my playlists and you'll find it listed as DIAGNOSIS SOUNDTRACK.

* * *

 _Here is the soundtrack that I've compiled for my story Diagnosis. The goal of this is to help produce or conjure an image of this weird, bloody, futuristic, crazy tale in a new way. I picked these songs because I thought that they either reflected the general vibe of the story or reminded me of a specific scene. And yes, I know this is lame. I think I saw this on tumblr once and wanted to try it out! Here's hoping you like it_

 ** _*** If you have any recommendations, let me know and I'll add them to the soundtrack! Thanks a bunch!_** **_\- Molly***_**

* * *

 **1.) JOHN WILLIAMS - THE STARKILLER**

 _In the first chapter of Diagnosis, Minerva and her patients watch the destruction of the Hosnian System from the medical bay of Finalizer. This is the only song on the list from the Star Wars soundtrack, but seeing as how this is where our story begins I felt like it needed to be included to help make that initial connection._

 **2.) MARILYN MANSON - DEEP SIX**

When Starkiller Base is destroyed by the Resistance, Minerva's world is swiftly turned upside down when a blast from the explosion rocks the ship. In a matter of minutes she is thrown head first into what would soon be known as the Dathomirian Plague, a deadly disease blossoming throughout the stranded star destroyer. Coming face-to-face with death and violence, this song reflects the craziness she feels in the first moments of the story.

 **3.) JULIAN WINDING - THE DEMON DANCE**

 _The medical bay is a high-tech and mechanical place that is slowly being taken over by medical droids. This song creates a sterile and predictable, yet restless feel that could resemble Minerva's day-to-day life aboard a busy, judgemental, high-tech ship. Her job could be her personal "demon dance"._

 **4.) VANGELIS - MEMORIES OF GREEN**

Taken from the soundtrack for the infamous distopian drama _Bladerunner_ , this song was originally made to be the theme for a cyborg who realizes her memories belong to someone else; a real person. Minerva dreams of seeing the planet of Naboo with her own eyes, but it's hard for her to imagine what it's like. Seeing as how she has never left the Colony, a collection of old Empire star destroyers that were used as the First Order homeworld, or _Finalizer_ , she doesn't even know what grass feels like. When I listen to this song I can picture Minerva sitting in the break room thinking about how blue a sky might be. Oscar bothers her when he has to explain what a bee is, and feels a little less for not knowing such basic information.

 **5.) FKA TWIGS - GIVE UP**

 _This song is about a lover refusing to give up on the one she loves. Kylo Ren and Minerva both are struggling with things that really get them down, but when they're together they somehow manage to encourage eachother, even if the road gets a little bumpy._

 **6.) THE NEIGHBOURHOOD - FEMALE ROBBERY**

Paranoia and nervousness are heavy themes throughout Diagnosis. In the chorus of the song, the speakers says, "Don't tell them anything" over and over again, reminding me of Minerva's desire to keep her drug habit and anxiety problems a secret. Never feeling safe in her own skin, Minerva has been watched by the First Order for her entire life.

 **7.) MASSIVE ATTACK - ANGEL**

 _For a brief moment when Minerva sees the body of the frozen man outside of Kylo Ren's window, she wishes that she were dead. As she spirals into an intense depression, she feels that it would be better if she simply gave up and died, never seeing her kindness or hope for the future lead to any pay-off. However, while she's practically dying in his arms, Kylo Ren stabilizes her with a macabre sense of desperate, cloistered love, tying them together for the rest of their story. As the deal is struck with a kiss, the real evil is brewing below._

 **8.) SEVDALIZA - HUMAN**

This song should be taken from the viewpoint of the plague victims. As they see themselves turning into unrecognizeable monsters, some try to cling to their humanity. However, could it be too late for their souls?

 **9.) FKA TWIGS - TWO WEEKS**

 _Broken and seeking relief, Kylo Ren and Minerva use eachother to find a sort of comfort. This song involves the steps leading up to agreeing to a relationship, reminding me of the words exchanged between the two in Kylo's cabin. The song makes you picture a couple giving in to their love after a while of waiting._

 **10.) BLADERUNNER SOUNDTRACK - TALES OF THE FUTURE**

Also from Bladerunner, this song creates an exotic image. After listening to her grandmother's stories about Naboo and Queen Amidala, Minerva pictures a unique and beautiful future for herself if she can ever make it there.

 **11.) THE VACCINES - DREAM LOVER**

 _Another song about sex!_

 **12.) LADY GAGA - THE CURE**

Ha! Get it?... Diagnosis? ...The CURE?...Ha!

 **13.) DIE ANTWOORD - UGLY BOY**

 _In Kylo Ren, Minerva has found a strange but loyal companion. Sure he might be a little rough around the edges, but it's always nice to have a tall, dark, and handsome pal by yourside when it comes time for kicking ass._

 **14.) R.E.M. - LOSING MY RELIGION**

After seeing endless amounts of carnage and death, there's only so much you can take before you start losing faith in the world around you.

 **15.) SCHINDLER'S LIST SOUNDTRACK - IMMOLATION**

 _This is a song of loss for every character in the story. The overwhelming sadness that comes with death can really dismantle a person, and there's already been plenty of it in Diagnosis. This song is for the seperation of mother and child, the death of a best friend, and the end of a dream._

 **16.) KAVINSKY - NIGHTCALL**

Like the girl in this song, Minerva can't help but feel the goodness in Kylo Ren, despite him being called a monster by others.

 **17.) CLEAN BANDIT - SHOW ME LOVE**

 _She me love, bitch!_

 **18.) SIA - ALIVE**

Overcoming a trial is always a time for celebration. There are always rays of hope that shine through the cracks.

 **19.) STUDIO KILLERS - GRANDE FINALE**

 _An apology to Minerva from Kylo Ren for being a "dirty bastard", perhaps?_

* * *

 *****READER RECOMMENDED SONGS!*****

 **1.) NINE INCH NAILS - CLOSER**

 _Recommended by spacecadet777._


	11. Hour 45

**HOUR 45**

 **16 KNOWN INFECTED**

 **6 MISSING**

 **37 DEAD**

A bead of sweat rolled down Kylo Ren's forehead as the heat of the dark hallway pressed down on him. He hadn't blinked in quite a while, but then again, neither had the seven men staring back at him. Minerva grabbed his wrist nervously as time seemed to slow down, every part of herself trying to make a conscious effort to be still. It was as if the men were a pack of dogs who would only strike if provoked, and that if perhaps the two of them froze solid they would go away. However, Minerva knew better than to put faith in their boredom. These were the Knights of Ren, and two of them had already tried to kill their master.

Her tongue went over the empty space where her teeth had been as she remembered their bodies on the floor. Their armor was bent and dirty, and they had a strange smell about them as if they had never bathed; like they were too busy killing to think of anything else. They didn't make much of a sound either, too focused on the hunt to even let out a dying breath. She saw the dead men once more in the Knights looking her way. Like hollow creatures encased in metal, she questioned whether or not to call them men at all.

Minerva's eyes shifted from Una's body on the floor of the hall to the face of her protector, Kylo Ren. He had put himself in front of her as soon as he saw the men peering at him and hadn't moved an inch since. He was like a statue made from jagged black stone, with his face a sharp white marble and his eyes of onyx, shiny in the glow of the red emergency lights. To Minerva, he looked just as fierce as the others; a beast against his pack.

Suddenly she could see his pouting lips part to speak, a bold move. She could feel something shift inside of her as time began to speed up once more. As soon as his sentence was over, it would be time to run. With a skip of her heart in her chest, she eyed him anxiously as he spat, "Go, Minerva!"

A rain of blaster fire erupted as the two of them stood up. Ren grabbed her arm and flung her to her feet, wrapping his arm under hers and dragging her along at a brisk speed. The bright red beams shot all around them, one of them grazing Ren's shoulder and another his calf, ripping open and singeing the black fabric around them. Amazingly, he didn't even budge, continuing to run uninterrupted. Minerva screamed as the shots rung out around her, trying desperately to keep up with him as they sprinted down the hall. Some of the blasts were so brightly red compared to the darkness that she had to blink a few times to see where they were going. A piece of the wall ricocheted from places and left a cut on her cheek, while another plunged all the way into her good arm, causing her to let out a guttural shout in pain.

When he heard this, he tightened his grip on her even more, dragging her the final steps to the end of the hall. As they waited for the door to open wide enough, Kylo fired a few shots back at the men with his blaster, hitting one of the them in the neck and sending him to the floor. Not long after that though he abandoned the blaster for his own power just as another monsoon of blaster fire came at them. Seemingly unafraid, he raised up his arm again just as Minerva had seen him do with the medical droid and called up his strange power. Minerva watched in utter disbelief as each and every blast was frozen in midair, the red beams looking like captured electricity, spazzing out every which way towards the target they would never reach.

He gritted his teeth and pushed against the blasts, turning each one around and back to the men who had fired them. After a few seconds, they were released, some of them hitting a few of the Knights and others missing completely. However, they didn't have time to check the damage, and went through the door into the main hallway where a dimly lit service elevator greeted them. Using his power once more, Kylo shut the usually slow-moving door swiftly shut and locked it through the control panel, preventing the men from coming any closer for a while longer.

The tall man flipped around to get a look at his friend, his mess of black hair hanging in his eyes a bit. "Are you alright? You weren't hit, were you?" he asked as his hands ran over her arms and face.

"I-I-I-I'm fine!" she stuttered, feeling completely overwhelmed. When his hands paused over the piece of shrapnel lodged in her bicep, she brushed him away and pulled out the little bit of metal with a cringe, dropping it on the floor with a clink. When she looked up again, her eyes widened at the sight of his sizzling shoulder. "Sir, you're hurt!"

For a brief moment he looked confused, but when he looked down at where she was staring so intensely, he realized that he'd been struck after all. "Nevermind that," he said, turning her around and pushing her into the elevator. "Go down to the medical bay and see if you can find some bacta to put on that wound. Who knows what kind of damage that bite could do to you."

Noticing that his body language wasn't exactly alluding to him joining her in the elevator, she started to panic. "I can't go down there without you! What are you doing?" she cried, tightening her grip on her gun. Her heart began to race even faster as the thought of never seeing him again crossed her mind. Already on edge, Minerva felt as if the floor of the elevator was about to fall out from under her, and that Kylo Ren was the soon to be missing safety net. "Ple-please d-don't leave me!"

Kylo Ren frowned, but remained focused. "You'll be alright until I get there. I'm going to finish these bastards off before they can track us down again. This is my fight, not yours." Suddenly he leaned into the elevator and activated his code clearance, overriding the emergency settings and allowing it to turn on. Pushing the floor number for her, he paused for a moment and added, "Now don't dawdle. Find something to keep your arm together."

"But what if something happens to you?" she asked, listening to the barrage of blaster fire hammering down on the door. "What should I do if... _you know_?"

Kylo looked at the toothless, crying girl and sighed. Without saying anything else, he pulled her in for a reassuring squeeze. Gazing up at him as if it would be the last time, Minerva examined his handsome face and took it all in. Wanting him to know that she cared, she kissed him gently, then pulled away from him, knowing in her gut that his idea was the right one. The look in his eyes let Minerva know that he had wished her kiss had lasted a little longer, so she kissed him again; a quick, tearful peck on the cheek.

As she stepped back into the elevator, she pushed the button for the doors to close and swallowed harshly, afraid for what was going to happen next. Looking him straight in the eye, she shouted over the sound of the Knights blasting away at the doors, "Please don't die."

Letting the words sink in, Kylo Ren couldn't help but smile sadly at the strange girl he had found himself with. She was so earnest and sincere, and despite the fact that she was missing her front teeth, stuttered, was morbidly pessimistic, and seemed to always be drenched in sweat, her honesty and odd loveliness made up for it all. "Of course I won't die," he replied, hollering back and cocking his gun, "You said it yourself; I'm a damn wizard. You've got nothing to worry about."

The doors shut before she could say any sort of goodbye. The elevator shot down into hell, back to where everything had started and this whole trial began. Minerva gripped her gun and repeated Kylo Ren's words to herself like a prayer. As the elevator zoomed from one floor to the next, she could feel the shadows around her steal the air from her lungs. Like a scared child, she shut her eyes and conjured up thoughts of her heroic wizard.

 **HOUR 45**

 **16 KNOWN INFECTED**

 **6 MISSING**

 **37 DEAD**

As the door was finally annihilated by the Knights of Ren, their old captain stood at the ready for their arrival. Quickly, he aimed his blaster at the cloud of smoke and bared his teeth, unsure of what would be coming at him from the other side. After a moment, running could be heard as their metal boots sprinted across the floor. As soon as the tip of one of their helmets emerged from the smoke, Kylo fired, sending the first man flying backwards. The others started shooting, and he quickly dodged their blasts, sprinting down the hall to create some distance between them. He turned and fired at the remaining Knights who were following him. Both of them were familiar.

Beta Ren, a burly man of monstrous height, and Theta Ren, a scrawny, quick thing, were hot on his heels. For the first time in the fight, one of them interrupted their silence by shouting at him. Beta hollered down the barrel of his gun, " _Traitor!_ You have brought disgrace to Lord Vader's name! You must die!"

Theta Ren jumped in front of him and fired a few quick bursting rounds from his rifle, landing a hit on Kylo's thigh. Kylo let out a shout from the pain, causing Theta Ren to jump with a strange excitement. "Die!" he squealed, his crooked, dirty teeth exposed underneath his helmet. "Die _now!_ "

"You first," replied Kylo, raising his hand and using the Force to choke the skinny man through his suit. Theta clawed at the invisible hands at his throat uselessly. As Kylo was choking him, he tried to get a good shot at Beta, but missed, sending the giant man crashing into him and releasing Theta from his grasp. Having been body-slammed into the ground by about 430 pounds, Kylo's breath was knocked out of his lungs at the impact, leaving him scrambling for air.

This gave Beta just enough time to land a massive punch across his face, breaking his nose. "You have betrayed your brothers! Their bodies lie desecrated by your blasphemy, and you have turned your back on the teachings of The Chosen One!" He punched him again, pounding his head into the floor. "Lord Vader laughs in the face of such sacrilege, and by my hand will he have vengeance!"

Kylo's head was ringing from being hit so hard, and it was difficult to focus on what the man was saying, but he knew that if he was going to make it out of this situation alive, he'd better come up with something quick. As the man sat on top of him, he slowly reached his hand down towards the knife at his belt, simultaneously licking at a bit of blood from his now crooked nose. "My grandfather is dead," he mumbled, his tongue thick from the beating he'd received. "We were wrong to worship him. He was never listening to our prayers, you have to understand that."

Theta stepped towards him and aimed his rifle at him, sticking the barrel of the gun right on his forehead. "Liar" he screeched, his animalistic craving for death never satisfied. "Let me kill'em Beta, please, let me kill'em."

"The Chosen One is always listening to those who are worthy, my captain." spat Beta, his voice raspy and deep. "It seems that he was able to see through your lies better than any of us ever could. You never deserved your lineage."

At this, Kylo jerked his hand and commanded the Force once again, this time sending the knife from his belt speedily through Beta Ren's neck and all the way into Theta's skull, fully cementing it there with a dull crack. Kylo watched as the life drained out of them almost instantly. Theta's gun went off right beside Kylo's head as the madman dropped it to the floor, leaving a molten hot hole in the cement tile about three inches deep. Kylo marveled at it with a shivering breath, amazed at how close he'd come to biting the dust. When the knights' bodies hit the ground with a thud, he sat up rapidly and rose to his feet, nearly falling over from nerves. Taking a moment to gather himself, he examined them closely, remembering the five years he'd spent with them.

"Fuck my lineage," he whispered, still catching his breath. He narrowed his eyes angrily at how quick they'd been to turn on him. Realizing another sad truth about his time with Snoke, he muttered, "That's all you ever wanted from me anyway."

* * *

The lights had been shut off in the medical bay as well as the air, leaving it looking rather murky in the pitch blackness of the ship. Condensation was smeared across the windows as if it had been raining in the room, and the only light coming in was coming from the stars and the reflections of the wreck ships outside. Luckily, Minerva had found the flashlight accessory on her rifle, and was angling it every which way as she slowly maneuvered herself around the place. All of the furniture and equipment had been strewn around as if there had been a riot, beds turned on their sides and heart monitors ripped from the floors and tossed onto the ground, their broken screens leaving shards of glass everywhere she stepped. She was thankful for the slightly ill-fitting work boots on her feet, but the overwhelming heat in the room was a bit much for her jumpsuit. The heavy denim fabric wasn't breathable, and a glance at her watch alerted her to the fact that the room had reached an astonishing 98 degrees, making it immediately feel even warmer.

Living in a temperature controlled environment for her entire life had turned out to be a disadvantage, and it was obvious that her body was having a hard time reacting to the first ever major change. She was growing short of breath and the level of sweat that had drenched her body was making it difficult to grip things. It didn't help that she was trying to be quiet by limiting the breaths she took, and she was growing more lightheaded by the minute. She was trembling so much that she could see it in her shadow, and the deeper she went into the medical bay the worse it got.

She paused when she heard a clicking sound, but she soon realized that she was subconsciously grinding her teeth from nerves. She made herself stop and slam her mouth more tightly shut, not wanting to capture the attention of any unwanted guests. The threat of running into Dr. Bhali was a real one, and she had no idea what she would do if she saw him. Would she have the resolve to kill him, or would he beat her to the punch? Eyes wide, she tried not to think about it, instead focusing on finding bacta.

The arm that Una had bitten was pounding in time with her heartbeat, and she dreaded rolling up her sleeve to get a look at it. It was incredibly itchy, but she knew better than to spread the disease by scratching it. She picked up a small jar of bacta from a shelf and proceeded to untie Kylo's hasty tourniquet, releasing some of the pressure from the wound but sending up a stinging sensation that made Minerva hiss in pain. Frustratedly she threw the rag on the ground and began undoing her jumpsuit, taking her arms out of it and tying it off at her waist. She looked down at her undershirt to see that not an inch of it was dry before attending to her wound. Not really wanting to look, she turned her head slowly and swallowed harshly at what she saw.

The bite marks were a bright red, but no blood was coming from them, only a brown liquid that looked like old pus. It had drenched her arm and colored it yellow, as if she were dying from kidney failure. Seeing how quickly the disease had spread in such a short time made her feel faint, but she hurriedly reached for the bacta to at least try and slow it down. As she was screwing the lid off of the jar, however, another strange sound made her freeze once more.

A baby's cry reached out from the depths of the medical bay and out into the lobby, making Minerva's brain practically split in two. " _What?"_ she asked aloud, her mind racing back to images of the baby she had delivered a few days before. If she was still alive, what had that demon done to her? A million questions went through her head, each one more heart wrenching than the last. Had he experimented on her? Was she sick, too? Had the radiation affected her?

Minerva clutched her heart as she listened to the baby's screams, almost screaming herself. Grabbing her gun and throwing it over her shoulder, she ran towards the sound, desperate to find the child. The flashlight from the weapon was barely enough to light her way, but she was familiar enough with the facility to know where to go. Thanks to the emergency alert, all of the doors were wide open, including one that she had never thought she would go through; the door to Dr. Bhali's personal laboratory. Through the darkness she could see a dim little green light from within, and as if to encourage her to move on, the baby let out another set of screams, forcing her deeper into the bowels of the room. A long hallway led her to the green back-up lamp, which had been set up on his desk.

Hiding out in the hall to make sure the madman wasn't around, Minerva shut off her flashlight and stood perfectly still, waiting, watching and listening. She had gone the right way; the baby's cries were even louder, and she could hear her as if she were laying right next to her. When nothing moved, Minerva decided to go for it, stepping into the pitch black lab with nothing but the green light to guide her. By that, she could see the entrance to another room, and deciding to take a chance, went in. After taking a deep breath, she turned on her flashlight again, illuminating just what she wanted to see.

The baby girl was lying in an old crate on top of a workbench, her tiny hands grasping for someone's, anyone's attention. Dropping the weapon and letting it dangle by the strap, Minerva moved in and picked up the baby, holding her tightly against her chest and sobbing. "You're alive!" she cried, her voice cracking through the tears. "I'll never let you go! N-never! I'm here! I'm here now!"

" **Ba-aay-yybee-ee! Not ... myyy-yy baybee-eee!"**

"Huh?" barked Minerva, turning around and looking for whatever had screamed. The flashlight on her gun highlighted something in the corner of the room, but it was so horrendous, she wasn't entirely sure of what she saw. Moving the baby into one arm and frantically grabbing the gun with the other, she aimed it at the other end of the room. Two human eyes sunken into a rotting skull stared back at her, a look of pure agony piercing through the irises.

" **My baby!"** it shouted, its vocal cords visible through its throat. One of them snapped under the pressure of its screams.

Whatever was left of Minerva's psyche shattered under the realization that this was the baby's mother, and her soul would never be the same. She looked as if she'd just seen a ghost.

* * *

 **This chapter was updated on December 20th, 2017, and erases Kylo Ren's encounter with Anakin Skywalker's Force ghost. Kylo Ren is a big boy, so he can save himself. :)**

 **\- Molly**


	12. Hour 46

**HOUR 46**

 **16 KNOWN INFECTED**

 **7 MISSING**

 **42 DEAD**

When Minerva was four years old, she saw her first dead body; the body of her mother. She had died in the night from fever, and seeing as how their cabin aboard _Perseverance_ was so cramped and small, there was no avoiding the sight of her body tucked into the bed beside her father. Minerva had woken up before anyone else that morning, the stiff discomfort she felt from having to sleep on the small booth that made up the family's kitchen table causing her to toss and turn herself awake. It was the smell that first alerted her to a problem. A potent combination of a public toilet and the unbearably sweet scent of a used wine glass, the stench that had filled the room was just in its beginning stages.

She'd sat up to see her mother looking up at her from the bed, which made her grin until she realized that she wasn't smiling back. A brown liquid was dripping out of the corner of her thin mouth, a mixture of bile and blood from her stomach. Minerva took the blanket off of her tiny frame and walked towards her mother and father, not entirely sure what to make of the situation. For a moment she just stood there until her father woke up, who was thrown off by his daughter standing over him. Following her frightened eyes, he quickly sat up and looked at his wife. Realizing that Esté was dead, he ran a tired hand through his hair and sighed. He never said a word to Minerva -or to anyone- about it, and before he left the cabin to fetch a medical team to take her body away, he put her back to bed as if nothing had happened.

A few minutes later he returned, making the team stay outside with the gurney so as not to wake the other children. Harnam and Thessaly never once stirred from sleep, even during the momentous occasion of death. The two of them would wake up to find her missing, as if she had never existed at all. Her father took the covers off of his wife and picked her up, carrying her out of the cabin. Her eyes were still open as they left.

She saw them again during her first month in medical training. They had kept her mother's body as a practice cadaver for groups like hers learning about how the human body worked, conquered, and failed. They wanted Esté for the disease in her lungs that had been plaguing quite a few people aboard _Perseverance_ and the other colony ships; an effect of deep space travel in cramped living conditions. At first she didn't recognize her and put on her gloves and goggles with the rest of them, just trying not to throw up from the intense smell of the formaldehyde. Her body had browned and yellowed, she had mummified, and pieces and parts of her were missing. They'd removed bits of skin from her palms and wrists to get a look at their anatomy, and her chest cavity was covered in plastic wrap after it had been cracked open and separated fourteen years prior.

It was when she looked at the flimsy tag attached to her big toe that she realized she had helped to label her own mother's organs. After that she threw up in the middle of the lab and had to be escorted out, a nervous break down causing her to let out one blood-curdling scream after another. She felt dirty, disgusting, and contaminated, refusing to leave her cabin at the facility for two weeks. Seeing her mother's body on the table after all this time made Minerva feel as if she had let her down. She should have been at rest, not propped up on display. It was as if her mother's spirit was haunting her. Eventually she agreed to come out if the body was shot out into space as it should have been nearly two decades before. She stood at the window of the morgue as the body was released, just to make sure she wouldn't be coming back. None of the other family members came.

Minerva seemed to have a problem with the dead coming back to haunt her, and the effects were wearing on her, body and soul. It was getting harder and harder for her to tell what was real and what was fake. Hallucinations were not a rare occurrence. However, feeling the dead woman's eyes on her own once more alerted her to her reality. Inessa Kurlish was still there.

She gripped the woman's baby tightly in her arms as what was left of her slowly and disgustingly moved off of the operating table that she was strapped to. Puddles of blood and pus were left on the metal surface as the lumpy and ripped shapes of her body slid into a standing position. You could see where her boils had gotten so large that they had exploded into bloody holes, the skin splitting open as if you had popped a grape. It had left her disfigured and monumentally large, with mutated skin, fat, and muscle left growing from her like a fungus. Minerva's eyes shot to one of her legs as the woman put her foot down, the exposed bones in her knee popping into place with a _crack_.

The sound of this made the baby start crying again, the unnatural noises enough to make anyone cringe. Minerva held her more tightly, taking a hand off of her gun and placing it on the baby's head as she put her lips together in a half-hearted _shh_. She looked back at it's mother and began backing away, not wanting her to get too close.

"I-Inessa?" she stuttered, her voice and the baby's the only sounds in the room besides the strange drippings and pops of the mother. "Is that you?"

The woman let out another ear-piercing scream, making Minerva jump from nerves. The sound of it was unlike anything she had ever heard before, and she could feel the hair at the back of her neck and arms stand up straight with fear. She swiftly returned her hand to the gun again and propped it up against her hip. "Inessa, please! I don't mean any harm!"

" **Ba-a-by!"** shouted Inessa, her voice croaking. The woman stuck out her arms and began reaching for the two of them, but before she could come any closer, a chain at her ankle and neck pulled her back. She belted out another screech in anger.

"I-I'm getting her out of here! I'm taking her someplace safe!" cried Minerva, backing up into a wall. "Please, I... I'm so sorry... I'm so sorry that I left you! I thought that you were dead! I..."

" **Shh-should b-be..."** muttered Inessa pitifully. Her eyes were piercing and black as she stared at the little nurse in front of her. Sorrowfully, she reached out again with one hand, pointing at her. " **W-where is... my s-s-son? Ossscar?"**

Minerva shifted, her eyes drifting to the floor at the thought of the lost boy. "I don't know where he is," she replied, her heart sinking in her chest at having to admit this to his mother. "I've been trying to find him. I want to help him if I can." Minerva shut her mouth before anything else could come out; she decided that it was best not to tell her what had happened to him.

Inessa let out a strange gurgling sound from the hole in her throat, and soon Minerva figured out that she was crying. Her tear ducts no longer functioned correctly however, and instead of tears, stinging, hot blood ran down her disfigured face like melted wax. She didn't have eyelids anymore, either, and could no longer blink them away. In pain from yet another bodily failure, Inessa backed up onto the surgical table and placed her ragged hands over her eyes. With a long groan, the woman managed to conjure the words, " **...D-don't te-ell h-him... about... me. Kill me-e, and go-o find h-h-him... Take baby... too..."**

Minerva felt a chill go down her spine at the woman's request. Suddenly, the weight of the gun hanging from her shoulder seemed to triple. The baby began to squirm in her arms, letting out a series of small cries, almost as if she understood what was going on and could sense the tension. Minerva coddled her as best she could, but the little girl wouldn't stop. Her eyes began to shift back and forth nervously between the mother and her baby. The muggy heat of the room caused a bead of sweat to drip into her eye, which she nervously tried to rub away.

" **Please,"** she spat, as if Minerva needed to be reminded that she wanted to die. " **I... can't do this a-anymore. ...My b-body is n-not my own. He-he'll keep me alive forever."**

Minerva placed a hand on her rifle, but hesitated, the thought of ending a life -even a life that should have been over days before- an incredibly difficult one to bare. She was a nurse, and she had been trained to save lives, not take them. She was supposed to provide relief, but never in her wildest dreams had she thought that relief would come in the form of blaster fire. Minerva had never killed anyone in her entire life, and in fact, had never even fired a blaster. She was terrified of the things, and thought that she had escaped that horrible privilege of using one by becoming a nurse. She was wrong.

Her hands were shaking with a nervous tremor that kept in time with her heartbeat, causing her fingertips to beat against the plastic shell of the weapon sporadically. The pain in her left arm was excruciating from the bite wounds that Una had given her, causing her to clench her teeth as the muscles retracted. Finally she got a grip on the thing, hoisting it to her waist once again like an executioner's axe, the weight of it making Minerva feel like the condemned man. Forcing the words up from her tongue, she said to Inessa, "I promise to take care of your daughter and to find your son. I'm so sorry that it has to end this way."

" _Are you?"_ said a voice.

Minerva bolted forward at the familiar monotone, and quickly turned her gun away from Inessa and onto her old comrade, Dr. Bhali. He stepped out of the shadows as if he were made of them, the reflection of the rifle's flashlight in his glasses preventing Minerva from seeing his eyes.

"Stay back or I'll shoot!" shouted Minerva with a quiver of uncertainty in her voice.

The man ignored her and took a few steps closer. "I just came to warn you that Mother won't go down that easy. It's all thanks to me and my superior design that Mother is incapable of dying, you see. You can try to put her down if you like, but be warned that it won't end well for you."

Minerva swallowed harshly, holding the baby as tightly as she could with one arm. Raising the gun to meet his face, she asked, "W-what do you mean? What did you do to her?"

"I saved her life," he replied curtly, looking at his creation chained to the table. "I turned Mother into the ultimate being. One who is strong enough to escape death and who is strong enough to destroy any being I deem inferior. Mother has my eternal gratitude for this."

As the man looked away, his head turned at just the right angle to reveal two black eyes, whose color seemed to have been overtaken by his pupils. Around his swollen eyelids was a stinging pink. Alarmed, Minerva whispered harshly, " _Gratitude?_ " He had obviously been experimenting on himself.

He smirked arrogantly and ignored her once more, taking a small bottle out of his coat pocket. He threw it to her and hissed, "Did you come back looking for these, Caulder? Your little pill shaped friends?" The plastic bottle hit her in the chest and fell to the floor, rolling a bit before it came to a stop, revealing the all too familiar name, _Valium_. Minerva looked away in embarrassment. "You know, I'm surprised that you've made it this far to be honest," he said. "You were always so twitchy and sad. Still are, it would seem. But, if we're telling truths, I'll let you in on something."

Minerva frowned.

"I've always wondered what that dumb tongue of yours would feel like on my cock."

He raised an arm and threw a knife through the air, landing it straight through Minerva's left arm. Nearly dropping the baby, Minerva fell backward from the force of it and landed sharply on her back, slamming into the wall. Letting out a scream in agony, she thought that her body might explode from the pain. She wanted desperately to grab the knife, but because of her grip on the child she had to ignore the wound. She tried to move her arm to aim her gun at him, but the pain was too immense.

"Aw, did that hurt?" he chided as he moved towards her. "Seeing you in pain just makes me want to fuck you even more. It's been a dream of mine to see what kind of face you'll make when I take you. Oh, does the thought of that make your skin crawl? Well don't worry, I would peel all of that stuff off beforehand." Letting out a strange laugh, he began to reach for her and commanded maniacally, "Now give me the baby or else Mother will skin you for me!"

"No!" she screamed, holding the child to her chest as she squirmed and squealed. "I won't let you take her!"

Inessa let out a gut-wrenching screech from the operating table and thrashed around wildly. Dr. Bhali looked at her with a face of annoyance, shaking his head and taking a step towards her. "Now Mother, how many times must I tell you-"

 _Bang! Bang! Bang!_

Three quick blaster shots pelted Dr. Bhali's back, sending him toppling over into the floor with a thud.

" _Minerva!"_

It was Kylo Ren.

He bolted through the doorway and into the room, covering his nose at the horrendous stench of Inessa's body. Just to be sure, he took his blaster and aimed it right at the back of Dr. Bhali's head, shooting him point blank. Minerva screamed at the sight of it, causing him to turn around and look at her. Scrambling to her side, the sweaty and bloodied Ren knelt down beside her to help her stand up.

"T-take the baby!" she told him, grabbing the hilt of the knife once her arm was freed up. "We need to get out of here now!"

Kylo Ren took the child into his arms, eyeing the little one with intense curiosity. How had something this fragile survived all of this? He looked at the grotesque figure on the other side of the room and felt his stomach flop, one glance enough to sate his appetite. As he pulled Minerva to her feet, he motioned with his head in her direction and asked, "What the hell is that thing?"

Minerva bared her teeth as she rose to her feet and answered with a grunt, "That's Inessa Kurlish. That's the child's mother." She watched as the man's eyes widened in disbelief. Feeling herself growing more lightheaded by the second, she hurriedly added, "Before we go, we need to kill her."

The woman took a step closer to them and nodded the flesh that made up her head. Looking at the two of them while balancing the baby in his arms, Kylo slowly reached for his blaster once more. Aiming it right between the woman's eyes, he cocked it and fired, the sound of the shot ricocheting throughout the laboratory. Silence reigned.

Inessa fell limply backwards onto the table, the chain at her neck holding her up enough that her body could not fall all the way to the ground. After a bit of swinging from her arms, she was perfectly still, as was Dr. Bhali, whose head seemed to no longer be a discernable shape. Minerva couldn't believe what had happened, seeing as how the dead man on the floor had once been her boss. She'd assisted him in the medical bay for nearly 2 years, and yet she hadn't a single inkling as to who he truly was. The same went for Inessa. She should have been a rosy-cheeked new mother, caring for a newborn that was resting in _her_ arms, not _Kylo Ren's._ Minerva looked at their bodies and tried not to faint.

A tug on her arm brought her back into frame. She gazed up at Kylo and mustered up a thank you, then stared at the little girl, her heart slowing a bit at the thought of having possibly saved her life. After catching her breath for a moment, an antsy Kylo told her that it was time to go, and assuredly he held her up by her arm and began to drag her out of the room. Blood was leaking down her arm and combining with the strange blisters that were forming around her bite wounds, creating a strange sizzling sound. As they made their way out of the lab, Minerva looked back once more, the feeling of having escaped a little too easily slowly beginning to creep its way into her worried mind.

* * *

"I'm fine!" muttered Minerva half-heartedly, trying to catch her breath. Leaning heavily into him, she could feel her heartbeat in her arm, a huge pulsing sensation that had almost brought her to her knees more than once. The stinging, throbbing pain was enough to make her wonder whether or not it was beginning to spread anywhere else. She didn't dare look though, and simply trudged on as best she could.

Kylo Ren hoisted her up and continued to drag her at his side, her entire body lying against him more and more with every step. In his other arm was the baby girl, who seemed remarkably at ease for being in such a horrendous situation. She was tiny and fragile, and occasionally he had to remind himself to not hold onto her so tightly. The whole thing was bizarre. He looked down at Minerva's fizzling arm and tried to suppress his level of shock. He could see the skin melting away with frightful speed, like fat turning into grease in a frying pan. It popped and hissed as if Una's teeth had been coated in acid, the bite marks revealing puddles of dark black ooze. Her arm was no longer the color of skin, and instead had been painted in the sludge and blood from her wounds. The knife that Dr. Bhali had thrown at her was starting to unbelievably rust at the blade. It was as if her blood was turning to acid.

"Minerva, we need to get you some help or else... or else I think you'll lose your arm." he said, panting. Turning down the hall and finding the way to the elevator, he set her down against a wall and pressed a few buttons to activate the manual override. "We need to get off this ship. I wouldn't touch that medical bay with a ten foot pole and the rest of the ship is crumbling."

Minerva stared at the ground, refusing to examine her arm but definitely feeling its affects. "W-we can't leave," she said, rubbing her forehead as a wave of nausea came in. Stuck in the delusion of saving the day, she almost foolishly insisted. "We don't have Oscar. We have to get Oscar."

" _Minerva!_ You have to let that kid go, there's no helping him now!" shouted Ren, annoyed with her inability to drop the issue.

Her eyes shot to his. "No! You don't know that!"

"He's dead, damn it, and you know it! Wake up! The whole crew has been looking for him!"

"He's not dead! _He can't be_ ," she replied, her voice cracking. "I have to find him!"

At this, Kylo Ren took his free hand and slammed it beside her head, leaning over her and staring her down fiercely. "You've done enough. Get in the elevator and stop talking nonsense! I'm trying to save your life here." When the baby started crying from the sharpness of his tone, he backpedaled a bit, suddenly remembering that he'd been holding a baby for the past 15 minutes. Watching her tiny hands reach out for something, he didn't quite know what to do, and stood there completely still in confusion, staring at her as if the concept of a baby was foreign to him.

Minerva watched the two of them. With her good arm, she reached back for her and gave her her pointer finger to grab onto, smiling very briefly when she grasped it. Knowing in her heart that Kylo Ren was right, she choked back her tears and nodded her head defeatedly. This little girl had been brought back from the dead in Minerva's mind; she had saved a child's life after all. Reluctantly letting the image of the boy go, she spoke in a harsh whisper, "Let's... get her out of here. Let's go."

He turned back towards her and lost whatever expression was on his face, nodding reassuringly at her decision. "Make a transmission to your uncle on Dreadnaught and tell him we're on our way over, and that if the men aboard don't like it then Kylo Ren will cut off their hands and keep them in a jar." At that, the elevator door opened and he immediately grabbed her up again, pulling her in with little help from her. The baby began to cry even louder.

Barely able to stand, Minerva leaned on the elevator door and tried to raise up her wrist, but seeing as how her flesh was practically melting off of the bone and a knife was all that was holding it in place, it was a bit difficult to do. With a grunt she managed to prop her arm up enough to get to her watch, activating it with slow, stiff movements. As soon as he was able to close the door, Kylo tended to her, holding up her arm for her and tilting it so that her uncle could see her face. He was careful to only touch the uninfected parts however, despite already wearing gloves. While the two of them waited for Dr. Renley to pick up, he tried bouncing the baby girl in the groove of his arm like he remembered seeing mothers do before, her squirming body cradled against him securely. Nothing seemed to be working when it came to comforting her, and Kylo slowly began to grow even more anxious.

"The poor darling," whispered Minerva, her eyelids falling sleepily. She smiled at her as best she could and gave Kylo some instructions. Recalling the short but cheerful time she was able to spend in the postnatal ward aboard _Perseverance_ , she informed the gigantic man on how to properly hold her. "F-fold her arms across her chest, sir," she said, watching expectantly. "Have her... facing the floor."

"What?" he asked, obviously not wanting to do something wrong.

Minerva took in a few shallow breaths. "Fold her arms... across her chest... and hold her there and... her bottom..." she panted, feeling faint but trying very hard to hold on. "Bounce her... a bit... up and down..."

After looking at her quizzically for a few moments, he did as she said, letting go of her arm and taking hold of the baby's, crossing them over her tiny chest. When that was done, he held his massive hand there and moved his other to her bottom, fully supporting her. Almost like magic, the baby stopped crying, the emotion in her face draining and the tears coming to a close. Kylo couldn't believe it. "Oh wow," he said in a whisper, watching the baby.

Losing the strength to stay awake, Minerva fainted, collapsing to the floor with a thud. Kylo immediately went to touch her, but as soon as he bent down, the transmission came through from her uncle. "What is it now, Minerva?" he asked, his smoker's voice as gritty as usual.

Getting to the point, Kylo balanced the baby in the strange hold and said, "This is Kylo Ren. Minerva and I are coming to _Dreadnaught_. She's been gravely injured and we found the baby she delivered a few days ago."

"You what- oh stars, it's really you isn't it? My niece has always had the most bizarre taste in friends." muttered Renley, cleaning off his glasses. Suddenly realizing what he'd just said, he paused, looked at Ren, and spat, "Wait, what? You said she's injured? What is going _on_ over there?"

Noticing that the elevator was getting close to their stop, Kylo quickly replied, "Be expecting us shortly," before turning off Minerva's watch and throwing her over his shoulder. The baby curled up cosily in the crook of his arm.

 **HOUR 47**

 **29 KNOWN INFECTED**

 **467 MISSING**

 **161 DEAD**

Captain Phasma watched as one by one the doors to the hangar bay were sealed off indefinitely. A flood of men and women came crawling through cracks in the doorways, one man almost getting stuck in the small hexagonal fold of the enormous metal doors. People were pulling others through to safety, while others were realizing that they were running out of room and were yelling at people to go to another hangar. Roughly 5,000 crew members had ended up in Hangar 5, while the other 32,000 had hopefully managed to find refuge in the other authorized zones. It was amazing how quickly the space had filled up, and Phasma was beginning to wonder whether or not there was going to be room enough to breathe. Captain Phasma and Captain Chambra had been in a state of shock ever since they'd found out about General Hux, and an overflow of needy and lost people wasn't exactly helping.

Initially, Phasma refused to believe it until she saw it with her own eyes. However, when she stepped into his cabin and saw where the blast had traveled straight through his head, she felt an unfamiliar shiver travel up her spine. It had been a very, very long time since Captain Phasma had been afraid, but she was terrified when she saw the man that she had put all of her faith in shoot himself in fear. _What the hell is on this ship?_ she thought to herself over and over again, almost lost in the question. _What did he see?_

Hux hadn't even bothered to make a report, let alone return to the bridge after confronting the strange, conniving Dr. Bhali. Captain Phasma couldn't imagine anything that would turn a man as ruthless and cunning as Hux to suicide, but knew for a fact that in time, she would figure it out, whether she wanted to or not. The crew that were trickling in now kept talking about crazed men and women ripping people limb from limb and climbing on the walls. They said that they were barely human, barely recognizable as the people they once were. A suffocating mist of hysteria had set in, causing each of the crew members and even some commanders and captains to yell at eachother incriminatingly. No one knew what was going on or how to fix it, and slowly but surely, they came to realize that they were running out of time to figure it out.

"It's Kylo Ren! Look, the bastard's still alive!"

Captain Phasma's eyes shot to the bay doors just as Kylo Ren came marching through. He was carrying a woman over his shoulder and seemed to have a bundle of something in his arm. A bit of relief came over Phasma as another commanding figure made his way into the hangar; hopefully he would be feeling cooperative. Stepping down from the cart she was standing on, Phasma motioned to Captain Chambra to follow her, then proceeded to march towards her shadowy target. Ren seemed to be in a hurry, and frequently yelled out for people to move out of his way, making a path for himself out of sheer force of will. A sea of people parted down the middle of the hangar as all eyes rested on the unmasked Knight of Ren.

Captain Phasma offered up a salute and greeted him. "Sir, I am happy to see that you are well." He was unphased and walked right past her, the disheveled girl on his back limp and lifeless. She looked around to see how many people had seen him snub her and frowned. Captain Chambra seemed to be too focused on his watch though to have noticed. She sighed and turned on her heels to follow the man, asking, "Who is this woman you're carrying? Does she need a medical droid?"

" _No!"_ spat Ren, suddenly coming to a halt. He turned and looked at Phasma furiously and said, "Stay away from the medical bay; there's only more death down there. I'm taking this woman to _Dreadnaught_ to seek help there. If you were wise you would do the same."

"What?" asked Phasma. "What do you mean?"

Everyone in close proximity to the pair were all ears, listening as intently as possible to whatever he had to say regarding _death_. A bit of tension seemed to sprout from where they were standing and move throughout the hangar, as slowly but surely every nervous voice was silenced. Kylo Ren looked around at the crowd before he replied, "Just get off of the ship. There's no saving it now." He adjusted Minerva over his shoulder and said, "I'm leaving."

Without another word, he simply kept walking, moving towards a shuttle. Phasma turned her head to look at Chambra as if to ask without asking _what is going on around here_ , but the man was still looking at his watch. He was receiving a transmission from someone, and a crackling voice could be heard throughout the silent hangar. Chambra looked up at Phasma with a confused face.

The voice, gravelly and deep, spoke in a commanding tone.

" _Don't let them off of the ship. They hurt Mother! They must pay for what they've done!"_

Kylo Ren froze, his blood running cold at the familiar, haunting voice coming through the transmission. It was Dr. Bhali, the man he had just killed 20 minutes prior. Swiftly, he came to his senses and began screaming at Captain Chambra to disconnect. "End the call! End the call, damn it, you're talking to a dead man!"

Phasma watched the insane gleam in Ren's mad eyes and confused his fear for anger. Something about the whole thing made her nervous, and soon she had a gun aimed at the Jedi Killer, not knowing his reasoning. "You are not authorized to take a ship, sir. Please, step back and drop the girl. We can get her some help for that arm."

His eyes flashed to Phasma angrily. "You have no idea what you're dealing with, Captain. Put down the gun and keep to your flock. We all need to get off of the ship before this thing spreads any further!"

Phasma was about to ask him another question, but movement from the little bundle in the crook of his arm was enough to startle her. Wrapped in part of a white bedsheet was a newborn baby, its tiny arms reaching up towards Kylo Ren's face as it let out a whimpering cry. The man looked down at the baby with genuine concern, an emotion that Phasma had never seen in him before. "Whose child is that, sir?" she asked, lowering her weapon. "What is going on? Where did that baby come from?"

Ren turned his attention from the crying baby to the giant metal soldier who was staring him down through her helmet. Blandly, he gave her a brief summary. "This is Inessa Kurlish's daughter. She was delivered by the woman slung over my shoulder four days ago and was thought dead until we found her just now. Her mother is still alive, too. Dr. Bhali is keeping her chained to a table in his laboratory like a dog." He turned back around and started moving towards the shuttle. "If I were you I'd make a break for it. It's not like these things can die, you know."

"W-what? Sir, what are you talking about? Hold on- stop! Don't walk away from me, damn it!" shouted Phasma, trudging after him.

Acting like nothing out of the ordinary was going on, Kylo kept up a steady pace to the shuttle. "I shot Dr. Bhali in the head 20 minutes ago, but somehow he's come back to life thanks to the disease that's pumping through his system." he said, adjusting Minerva's body like it was a heavy backpack. "Now, I don't know about you, but usually, when dead people come back to life and start accusing me of hurting their pet science project, I want to get the hell out of there. I mean, unless you _want_ to turn into a skinless, shrieking monster desperate for the sweet release of death."

The armored woman eyed Ren nervously, knowing that the Knight of Ren never had occasion to lie. She started to sweat at the thought of the extent of the disease that had been plaguing the ship, wondering just how many it had claimed. Trying to retain a false sense of calm, she spat, "They can't _die_? What is this, a ghost story? You're just trying to make a scene! Can't you see that things are already on the fritz? We need you here commanding the ship, sir, the crew is losing morale!" She balled her fists and watched as he kept walking, acting as if he hadn't heard a single word she said. Furious, she stepped up to him and grabbed him by the shoulder, flipping him around to face her. "You can't leave! The general is dead! You're all we have left, sir. _You're in command!"_

Kylo Ren shot her a nasty look, but when he let her words sink in it was obvious that he was shocked. "What?" he mumbled in disbelief. The man he had spent five years hating was dead, and he didn't even have to be the one to kill him. Smiling rather morbidly, he was about to ask how it happened until he heard something drop to the floor. With a strange plopping sound, he looked down behind him to see that Minerva's hand had fallen off. Eyes wide at the horrifying image of her rotting flesh, Kylo quickly abandoned the idea of conversation with Phasma and reached down to grab her severed hand. Everyone around him let out a gasp, looking at the woman's dissolving arm and quivering at the sight of it, smelling the foul stench released into the air after her hand had disconnected itself. Balancing her body as he bent down, he picked up her hand and stuffed it in his pocket, unsure of what else to do with it. Bringing himself up to a standing position, he looked at Phasma once more but said nothing; his tired, nervous eyes said it all.

Thrown off by the dead limb and a frightened Kylo Ren, Phasma simply stood there and watched them enter the shuttle. When they left the hangar for _Dreadnaught,_ no one said a word, as if their fear were a sleeping monster that would be the one to kill them in the end.

* * *

Kylo Ren placed the baby girl in an empty container aboard the shuttle, stuffing it with an emergency blanket that he found in the ship's first aid station. She seemed to be happy and fell asleep almost immediately, the journey from the medical bay just as hard on her as it was everyone else. He'd set the command shuttle to autopilot to tend to Minerva and the baby, their destination just a few minutes away. He pulled up a chair beside Minerva, whose unconscious body lay strapped into the ship's medical gurney. Ren had figured out how to pull down the oxygen mask for her, and raised up her head to pull the rubber band behind her ears.

His clothes had gotten singed in the areas where Minerva's blood had dripped onto the fabric, and not long after they had taken off from _Finalizer_ , Ren felt a burning sensation on his thigh, a result of her severed hand bubbling and fizzing away at the fibers of his pants. For now, the hand was in a metal trash bin, which seemed to be containing it for now. His heart was beating in his chest at the thought of losing Minerva, and at every small movement she made -an inhale of breath, the twitch of an eye- he thought that the moment had come. But somehow, she was still alive. Kylo had no idea what was happening inside of her body, but he knew that it wasn't good.

The image of Minerva's friend Una completely losing it was biting at his nerves, making him watch the woman all the more intensely. What if she woke up and went insane? Would he have to kill her? _Could_ he kill her? Ren frowned and stared out of the front window of the ship, pieces of debris and dead bodies still floating around from Starkiller Base. Letting out a sigh, he held onto her remaining hand and stroked it lovingly, praying that the little nurse that had saved his life would hold on just a little while longer.

* * *

 **Hey everybody! First of all, let me apologize for the super long wait time on this chapter! It took me way longer than I should have to get it up, so please please please, find it in your hearts to forgive me for my fanfiction failings. The weekend I was due to post the chapter I barely had anything written, but just as I had started working on it, a tornado came through where I live and basically destroyed everything. We were without power for a while and I was helping my dad clean up our property from where huge tree branches had fallen. Some of my neighbors didn't have power for almost 8 days, but luckily for us we were only down for a few hours. After that I just got really distracted to the point where it took me almost two extra weeks to post this! Ew! Anyway, please forgive me. I promise to stay on it until the end, and trust me folks WE ARE GETTING THERE VERY SOOOOOON~! So soon in fact, that I'm already planning my next fanfiction! So stay tuned for that mess! Anywhooo, how did you guys like this chapter? Did you love it? Did you hate it? Did you want to take it out for a nice seafood dinner and then never call it again? Leave a review in the comments and tell me how I'm doing! I LOVE to hear back from all of you lovely readers out there, and to all of you thick-and-thinners (you know who you are) thank you for always showing up to review! It really helps me and the writing process! It is SO gratifying to know that people are out there responding to my ramblings! You guys rock! See you soon for the next chapter!**

 **\- Molly**

 **P.S. Thanks for 3,000 views! Wowee wow wow wow!**


	13. Quick Update

11/30/2017

Hey everyone! I know you haven't heard from me in a long time, but please know that I haven't forgotten about this story! I stopped writing it because I felt like I had strayed from my original storyline and added some things that took away from the story. I felt like I wasn't producing any good chapters, so I took a break from it. A LONG break. Also, I felt like I was losing interest in the story from my readers, but really, looking back at it, I don't blame you. The story kind of took a crappy turn.

Anyway, I might try and fix it and complete the story (I only have like 2 chapters left of this fic) over my christmas break when I have time to really focus and dig deep. I hope I haven't disappointed you all too badly! Thank you to everyone out there asking for me; it means a lot to know that some of you are still reading Diagnosis.

Please be aware that if I do update the story, I'll be changing the scene where Kylo Ren meets sees Anakin's force ghost in chapter 11, as I feel it was hastily written, cheesy, and not entirely necessary to the plot. I want to give you guys something great, and I don't want this fanfic to be caught in the stereotype of poor storytelling. Please, if you have any criticisms, tell me! I want to hear from my readers! It means so much to me and leaves me feeling more confident about the story.

Again, I am so sorry for not finishing Diagnosis. I feel terrible for leaving you guys out in the cold, especially since you've been with me so long. Please stay tuned!

Much Love and Merry Christmas

\- Molly


	14. Day 8

**3 DAYS LATER**

 **DREADNAUGHT**

Kylo Ren watched as the circuit board was placed inside of Minerva's chest, tubes and wires from the device connecting to even more machinery inside of her torso. As soon as the metal cylinder was hooked up and running, he could see it literally bring her back to life, her old heart replaced with a mechanical one that pumped a slow, steady rhythm. Through the glass he could see the medical droids crack her sternum back into place and begin sewing her up. In a few minutes, while she was out, they would go ahead and remove the parts of her stomach and intestines that had died during her blood transfusion.

They had taken her left arm as soon as they'd landed on Dreadnaught and quarantined her inside of a plastic tent while a droid amputated it. They laid her flat on her stomach and spread her arms out as if she were free falling. The arm didn't need much coaxing to separate from her body. Kylo Ren remembered watching it peel off, and how her skin had looked like dough; a bit of fleshy webbing had kept the pieces together, gooey and stringy. However, a thin blade had taken care of what little resistance the arm gave. As soon as it was gone they'd started operating.

For the past three days the pale man had been plastered to the operating theater, watching Minerva like a hawk to make sure that she was still alive. He didn't sleep much, but when he did it would be the unintentional ten minute naps that would always leave him angry and irritated. He scolded himself. What if you'd missed something important? He'd watched as, slowly but surely, Minerva's body had essentially been hollowed out. The poisons from the bite shut down every major organ one by one. First went the kidneys, then the lungs, then her heart. It was like watching an invisible game of dominos. Kylo Ren couldn't afford to miss anything now, not when she was so close to completion. So he sat there, hunched over and bleary eyed in the same dirty clothes he'd come aboard with.

Crewmembers from Dreadnaught watched him closely as they passed by, though most were still too nervous to even stand near the man. They were incredibly cautious around him, remembering the stories they'd heard about his infamously deadly temper tantrums. When Dr. Renley had instructed one of his men to offer Kylo Ren a bite to eat, it was as if it were some sort of suicide mission. An older man finally volunteered after several seconds of intense silence. Bravely, he took Ren a tray, but when he rejected his nervous offer of a sandwich, the man tensed up and waited to be choked, hit, or scolded. However, nothing ever came, and he slinked away quietly to tell the tale. People were starting to whisper back and forth to one another about how strangely calm Ren was. He was sad and tired instead of furious and vengeful; it was as if they were looking at a different person entirely. The truth was that the Knight of Ren had forgotten himself. His focus lay entirely on the tiny woman on the operating table below him. Or, what was left of her, that is.

Her injuries were much worse than anyone had believed. In fact, no one could believe anything about her case. No one, including Dr. Renley, had seen anything like this disease. It was as if it were sentient, and had been making an attempt at taking control of not only her body, but her consciousness as well. The disease wanted to become Minerva. Its cells wanted to replace hers until there wasn't anything left of her own. The doctors aboard the medical center had come to the conclusion that its ambition was the reason for the disease keeping her alive. If she died, it would no longer have a moveable, controllable host.

The thing moved through the blood. Every organ that helped in cleaning the blood had become contaminated by the disease that had spread from her rotten arm. Her spleen was swiftly removed, half of her liver was cut out, and her moldy lungs had dirtied her air supply to the brain. To prevent the strange acidity of her blood from dripping through the floor, they'd shot her amputated limb into space with the garbage. It had become so bad that the knife that Dr. Bhali had thrown at her had completely dissolved, almost as if it had been absorbed into her body. Because of the severity of the situation, the medical team had been working on her in shifts for the past 72 hours, but soon her surgeries would come to an end. An important decision was about to be made.

Taking a break from the operating room, Dr. Renley stepped through the door where Kylo Ren was sitting and peeled off his gloves, his nose and mouth still covered by a thin mask. Kylo didn't even notice him until he cleared his throat, startling him out of his daze. "Lord Ren, please," begged Renley, "Go and get some rest. I know Minerva, and she would want you to do the same."

"No, I'm fine," replied Ren flatly, glancing back down at her again. A good amount of five o'clock shadow had begun to grow around his chin and jaw, making him itch. Scratching his cheek, he said, "I need to stay."

Sighing, the doctor took off his mask and wadded it into a ball, stuffing it into his pocket. Renley examined the man's face and flashed a sympathetic grin before staring at the white tile floor beneath him. He had news for him, but he didn't quite know how to put it. Exhausted and grim, the doctor sat down beside him and sighed.

He mumbled, "It's difficult seeing her like this, isn't it? Never in my wildest dreams had I thought that I would ever be performing such life changing surgery on my own niece." He raised a brow and said, "I've sent word to that brick wall of a father of hers, but of course he's off-colony on some shit show of a mission. He didn't seem very impressed with the whole thing, really, but her older sister at least put in a few good words on her behalf before saying she wouldn't be coming..."

Kylo said nothing, only frowned.

Dr. Renley continued with, "Minerva is lucky to have you here, my lord. I thank you for this, truly." He paused and made a face of disgust. "This is exactly what happened when my mother fell ill. They just shut down; they don't care. It just seems to me as if our family has made a nasty habit of discounting the weak and warm-hearted."

Turning to face him, Kylo looked the doctor in the eye and said, "Minerva isn't weak. Just because she's good, it doesn't mean that she's weak." He snuck another glance back down at her before saying, "She taught me... she taught me that to be strong, you have to be there for others; to be kind and understanding. Minerva is strong, sir, believe me. She would have to be in order to get me to admit that."

Dr. Renley stared at him with tired eyes, unsure of what to make of the concerned man that sat beside him. It was obvious that Minerva was very dear to him, which made it all the more difficult for Renley to update him on the girl. However, he was no stranger to tragedy, and decided that it was best just to get it over with. Clearing his throat, he stated, "Minerva is... very strong, especially to have made it this far, but..."

Kylo's eyes widened.

"We've done all we can to help her. There's just nothing else we can do," muttered the old doctor, ringing his hands. "The disease, the Plague -whatever that bloody thing is- it's just too strong. I'd say she has about 24 hours left before her body starts rejecting itself again."

Kylo bolted out of his seat, almost as if what the doctor had said was taken as a threat. He wanted to kill his words, throw them to the ground and beat them. He wanted to take his words and slit its throat. But words, truths, could not be killed. A fact can not die or be erased; it stays there, written in invisible stone, unchanged. Coming to this realization, Kylo sat back down, slowly. His lips trembling, he asked, "She's going to die?"

"That's the punchline," he fretted, "She can't die if the Plague has taken over her system, which, as far as we know hasn't happened yet." The doctor paused to clear his throat and to wipe the sweat from his brow. "As of now, we still have the ability to... euthanize her."

At this, Kylo Ren shook with a quick rage, barking, "What?"

Dr. Renley motioned with his hands for him to calm down, swiftly shouting back at him, "Dathomirian Plague causes its victims to live in the most intense agony imaginable. Do you really want that for Minerva?" Tears started to form in the old man's eyes as he thought of his niece enduring such pain. "We haven't tested the antidote we've created using your kyber crystal yet, but if that doesn't work, well... I think that's our best plan of action."

"She's not dead yet, man, test the damn antidote already!" commanded Ren desperately, furious and confused.

"We will, my lord," mumbled the doctor, "we plan to administer it to her when she wakes up within the next hour or two. However, I've no idea of what to expect. Everything we have is from Dr. Bhali's lab notes, and seeing as how the goal of his experiment was the opposite of ours, we're practically going on blind bloody faith here."

Kylo could feel the stinging of tears on the lids of his eyes, but he held fast against them. "Will she be in a lot of pain when she wakes up?" He narrowed his eyes and said, "I don't want her to suffer just to watch this thing fail. I don't want her to hurt anymore than she already has."

Renley looked up at him and offered him a sympathetic grin, which quickly vanished. "No, no," he replied, shaking his head. "The lass can't feel anything. We've numbed the thalamus in her brain; she can't feel negative feedback. I thought that I atleast owed her that. If we hadn't, I think the shock to her system would..."

He didn't finish his statement.

Kylo Ren stared at him, trying to figure out whether he should feel comforted or not.

Renley shook his head and leaned back in his chair, thinking about all of the things that needed to be done over the next few days. He began talking out loud, saying, "I can't imagine how my mother will handle this news, dreadful as it is. Minerva was always her favorite granddaughter." Renley stood up with a groan and stretched out his back, making his way to leave. "My lord, I'll have someone come and get you when we-... what? What's the matter?"

Kylo Ren got up from his chair with a quizzical look on his face. "Your mother," he began, "is her name Rabé?"

The doctor seemed confused for a moment, but given that he'd been spending so much time with his niece, it made sense to him that Ren would know his mother's name. "Yes. Why do you ask?"

"Minerva said that she'd died somewhere off colony," explained Ren. "She's still alive?"

The older man closed his eyes sadly at the question but smiled shortly after. "Yes, she is. Now please, don't think ill of me, my lord. There's a very good reason for lying to Minnie," he grumbled, his voice deep and astute. "If I'd told Minerva that her grandmother was still alive then my brother-in-law would have tracked her down and killed her himself, I'm sure of it. He'd made mention of it to me before, seeing as how she was always an outsider."

"He was going to have her put to sleep," divulged the doctor, "just like all the other little old ladies on colony ships who'd lived past their usefulness. Somehow I convinced him to let me handle the whole thing, so of course I got my dear mother out of there and back home to Naboo as quickly and as quietly as I bloody-well could. She's there now, in a little cottage behind Theed Palace. I go there to check on her every few months."

"Minerva would be ecstatic if she found out," said Kylo.

Dr. Renley looked at him mournfully and said, "I suppose we can finally tell her now. It's just a shame that it has to be like this." Adjusting his white coat around his burly shoulders, he turned to leave and said. "You can tell her when she wakes up. It will bring her some comfort."

* * *

The communications officer held his headset closer against his ear as he strained to make out the grainy transmission coming from Finalizer. The voice on the other end had been screaming at him for the better part of twenty minutes, but so far the officer hadn't been able to make out anything other than the urgency on the other end of the line. In front of him lay a piece of paper where he'd written down the bits and pieces of words that he'd managed to pick out of the transmission. So far, scribbled down in dark grey pencil, were the words, my, he, help, trying, please, something, help, he, me, talk, please, and cannibal. The last one he wasn't so sure about; it didn't make sense to him. However, knowing about the illness that had struck the Finalizer and its crew, the officer knew that help was something that they desperately needed.

"Finalizer, please repeat, we are having some difficulty on the line," spoke the officer calmly, perhaps for the thirtieth time since reaching them, growing irritated at not being able to help. He wasn't even sure that they were hearing him on the other end. The ship was in horrible shape, and half of the lights had shut off from their generators collapsing. He could see it floating aimlessly from the window of the bridge.

Suddenly, the static that had been drowning his ears for so long cleared, and he could hear harsh, heavy breaths in his headset. The breaths turned into the nervous male voice that he had heard earlier, only this time he could clearly make out, "Shoot us down, it's too late for any of us. Please, all of my friends, the crewmembers, they're all gone. They took them all, the cannibals took them all."

Before the officer could respond, a blaster could be heard, firing a single shot. Then there was silence.

The other officers on the bridge of the Dreadnaught had been watching him try and make contact, and when they watched him take off his headset and wring his hands, each one slowly returned to their posts, terrified of what was on the dying ship in front of them. A few minutes later, plans were made to charge the orbital canons and act like this had never happened at all.

* * *

After convincing the team of medics to go ahead and give Minerva a prosthetic arm, Ren watched as they strapped it onto her shoulder and plugged in the wires that would connect to her nervous system. They all left soon afterwards, exhausted from operating on her for so long. Kylo Ren was left in the room alone with her.

The girl lay in a wide bed beneath him, her new arm spread out onto a pillow at her side. She was a pasty white color, and the glistening sheen of the bacta she had been briefly placed in covered her in a greasy layer. Her eyes looked sunken in for all of the dark circles around them, and her lips were cracked and dry. Flattened curls stuck to her forehead and cheeks with sweat, and the thin gown they had dressed her in had grey puddles of it gathering at her chest and underarms, as if she had just finished running a marathon. If one didn't know any better you might think she'd just died of a heart attack, but gently in the corner of the room a monitor could be heard confirming in soft beeps that she was still somehow alive.

Ren could hear strange sounds coming from the chest plate that they had installed in her torso; the bags that acted as her lungs expanding, the mechanical heart thumping. It was bizzare to see her like this. They had shaved the base of her head to get a better scan of her brain, eliminating every curl up to the bottom of her ears. She didn't look quite like herself anymore, and Ren shut his eyes to hide himself from it. For a moment he just stood there and listened to her breathing. The room was quiet, and for the next few minutes he leaned up against a column, gazing out the window behind her bed.

The next time he looked at her she was awake. Her eyes were open and staring at him, her face blank and unmoving. She said nothing to him.

Ren felt something in his chest shift. Something was wrong. Her eyes had no shine to them whatsoever, as if she weren't really looking at anything at all. Nervously he thought to himself, how long has she been staring at me like that?

"Minerva?" he asked eventually, taking a hesitant step closer to her.

At the sound of her name she shivered, almost as if his voice was what had truly woken her up. Whatever was missing returned to her eyes, and suddenly she was Minerva again. He knelt down beside the broken girl and took her small hand in his, his eyes searching her face for any sign of pain. Her soft brown eyes looked out at him weakly; she was barely able to keep them open. Her throat dry and scratchy, she managed a small voice and whispered his name.

"Kylo," she muttered. Taking in a shallow breath with the help of her new lungs, she whispered, "Is that you?"

He grabbed her hand even more tightly and breathed, "Yes, Minerva, I'm here." Petting her damp forehead, he repeated, "I'm right here."

"Is the... the baby alright? The one... the one we had with us?" she asked, looking around the room as if she expected to find her there. "Sh-she was just h-here... I think... where is she? Where are my... oh, wh-what are they called... teeth. Wher-where's my teeth?"

He watched as her tongue moved behind her upper lip, stroking the spots where her teeth had once been. "The baby is doing well, Minerva, they've managed to contact the mother's relatives and let them know that she's alright." He paused to sigh before adding, "And your teeth, they got knocked out, remember?"

Minerva hadn't moved since the mother was mentioned, as if all of her attention had been placed on that word and the memories that resonated with it. Her eyes glazed over again.

Kylo watched her, confused and worried about what seemed to be going on. She appeared to be going in and out of consciousness, almost as if she were thinking so hard about something that the rest of her body ceased functioning. A nervous stirring went through his chest once more as time continued to pass without a word, a breath, or a blink from her.

A full minute had gone by when he eventually whispered again, "Minerva?"

"She's not dead."

Kylo leaned in at her statement, unsure of what she meant. "Who's not dead?"

Unmoving in the bed, Minerva stared straight ahead and repeated flatly, "The mother isn't dead, only fire can kill us. You want to kill us."

Ren's stomach dropped. "Minerva, what are you talking about?"

Suddenly, Minerva's eyes began a slow roll until finally, she was peering at him sitting beside her, like a doll whose gaze seemed to follow you wherever you were in a room. Her voice came out in a hoarse whisper. It said, "Tell the fat doctor that if our hosts are destroyed, we will kill this girl."

Ren could feel a chill rush up his spine as he realized just who, or what, he was talking to. He wasn't speaking with Minerva anymore. He was talking to the disease.

In a rash reaction he stood up and shouted, "Get out! Get out of her head!"

The disease seemed unimpressed and continued on, hissing, "We desire the ship you call Finalizer so that we may return to Dathomir. Give us the vessel and we shall return the girl to you unharmed."

A door opened at the other end of the room, causing both Ren and Minerva's eyes to shift towards the interruption. It was Dr. Renley and the rest of the medical team, and he was carrying a vial of light blue fluid. The look on his face made it obvious that he already knew what was going on. He held the vial up and said, "Minerva, we've prepared an antidote for you, my dear. We'll have you feeling better very soon."

As if she'd been splashed in the face with boiling water, Minerva shielded herself from the vial, screaming, "Take it away! Take it away!"

"Hold her arms," instructed the doctor, readying a syringe.

Ren and a male nurse grabbed each of her arms, but without thinking, the nurse ended up severing her new plastic prosthetic completely, leaving her empty socket of a shoulder out in the open. Minerva looked down at it and screamed, struggling against Ren as she did so. " _Let go of me_ ," she cried, her voice hoarse and deep, " _No! Let me go!"_

"We're going to get this shit out of her system," said Renley, approaching his niece with the needle. "My lord, keep a strong hold on to her; this is going to hurt."

Ren nodded his head, but deep down he was surprised at how much she was able to struggle against him. He tightened his grip on the soft flesh of her arm, most likely leaving a bruise.

" **IF YOU DO IT I'LL KILL HER** ," it shouted, curling her lips into a smile, " **I'LL DO IT RIGHT HERE. SHE'S DEAD IF YOU DO IT!** "

Dr. Renley hesitated, knowing what the disease was capable of. However, he also knew that the serum was the only thing that could help her, and proceeded to grab her arm.

At this, the disease protested even more, shouting at him, " **SHE'S DEAD!** " A second later the color began to drain from Minerva's face as the disease cut off her ability to breathe. Her body fell limp.

Just like the night in the medical bay, Kylo Ren could literally feel the life drain out of her. His heart leaped in his chest as he watched her begin to slip away, her pretty face gone slack and sleepy. Ren grabbed her up out of the bed and held her, pulling her away from the doctor and backing into the corner of the room.

"Don't do it," he shouted nervously, clutching her to his chest, "put down the syringe. Put it away."

"It's lying, my lord, we can't bloody trust it!" Renly growled, coming towards him. "Place her back in the bed, sir, quickly."

Ren refused, simply standing there and looking, desperately, for any sign of Minerva's return. Renley stayed away, and eventually, like someone escaping the waters before drowning, Minerva took a gasping breath, the disease releasing her. She used her only remaining hand to grab a hold of Ren's tunic, pulling herself closer to him as she shivered and shook against the strange grip that the sickness had on her life.

Letting out a shaking sigh of relief, Ren held her more tightly as he felt how cold she was to the touch. He moved towards the bed and laid her back down, petting her head as he tucked her back in. The medical team members were stunned. Unsure of what to do, Dr. Renley placed the syringe into the pocket of his coat until he could think of something else.

Before she was completely covered with the thin hospital sheets, Minerva stuck out her hand and grabbed Kylo's, giving him pause. As herself, her eyes freed from its darkness, Minerva gazed up at him and said, "I-I've made a deal with them."

"What?" Ren asked, concerned.

She looked over at her uncle and said, "They told me that I could have Oscar if I let them have me. That serum. It has to be for him."

* * *

 **Hey guys! Long time no see, huh? I hope you like this latest update! Only ONE MORE CHAPTER TO GO! Admittedly, it's taken me a long time to get back into the swing of writing _Diagnosis_ , and it might take me a little while to reach the finish line, but I promise to get there nonetheless. You all deserve an ending for being with me for so long! Thank you for your patience! And thank you for pushing me! I hope that this chapter was worth it! PLEASE let me know what you think! I want to hear back from you! You have no clue how intensely helpful it is to get a review. They encourage me to write, as well as let me know that there are people out there that want to hear more from me. Anyway, here it is! We're so close to the end, guys! See you at the finish line very soon! Love ya!**

 **\- Molly**


End file.
